The Jewish Chronicle

Hampstead and Kilburn CL cent of members amid har

- BY LEE HARPIN

HAMPSTEAD AND Kilburn Labour Party has lost nearly 20 per cent of its members amid a hard-left takeover of leading positions at the branch.

Sources have said that 422 members of Hampstead and Kilburn constituen­cy Labour Party (CLP) have left the party over the past year — leaving just under 2,000 activists.

The north west London constituen­cy is home to around 7,000 Jewish voters, and the JC has learned of numerous Jewish Labour supporters in the area who have quit the party as a result of the long-running antisemiti­sm scandal.

Hampstead and Kilburn CLP — represente­d by Tulip Siddiq MP — has long been rocked with allegation­s of “obsessiona­l Jew-baiting and Israel bashing” at local meetings.

Phil Rosenberg, a former councillor in West Hampstead, and now Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies, told the local Ham & High newspaper last February: “I have unfortunat­ely faced antisemiti­sm before from some people in the Labour Party... there is a culture of people egging each other on and thinking it is OK.”

Leao

Neto quit

Leao Neto as CLP chair last November claiming there was a “wider culture of aggressive intimidati­on and exclusion”. The membership dip comes after reports of around 150,000 people leaving the party nationally.

The Labour leadership was quick to deny that this was because of the antisemiti­sm scandal that has engulfed Jeremy Corbyn or the leadership’s failure to oppose Brexit.

A source connected to Hampstead and Kilburn CLP confirmed that 422 of its members had left the party since January 2018, adding it was down to “a combinatio­n of Brexit and anitisemit­ism concerns”. Last week, general secretary Jennie Formby claimed more than 3,000 people had joined the party over the past two

 ?? PHOTO: SWAMINARAY­AN SANSTHA TEMPLE ??
PHOTO: SWAMINARAY­AN SANSTHA TEMPLE

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