Labour in the sewer

Heaven knows why Labour is celebrating its Peterborough win: its support dropped like a lead balloon, it only held the seat by 683 votes and its new MP, Lisa Forbes, is embroiled in an anti-Semitism row. One Labour MP said that anti-Jewish racism “is becoming normal” in her party; another refused to campaign for Ms Forbes in the final week on the basis of her “anti-Semitic social media activity”. (Ms Forbes insists that she finds anti-Semitism “abhorrent”.)

The Jewish Labour Movement, which called for the newest MP to immediately have the whip suspended, said the party has “consistently failed to take a zero-tolerance approach”. The Movement claims Labour “is simply incapable of rooting out hate by itself ”.

It is disgusting that the Opposition party has indeed failed convincingly to flush anti-Semitism from its ranks, and while the shame is concentrated at the top, it taints almost everyone involved. How can so-called moderate Labour MPs – MPs who constantly lecture everyone else about racial injustice – participate in the party that has been too slow to combat hate? Tom Watson, the deputy leader, has acknowledged the antiSemitism problem and promised to take charge of handling some complaints himself. Yet there he was, campaigning for Ms Forbes.

As is often the case with the Left, it’s not just their sins that cause offence but the rank hypocrisy that accompanies them. Jeremy Corbyn implied that the Brexit Party is “far Right” and called his by-election win a victory for the “politics of hope over the politics of fear”. He needs to take another look at his own party’s descent into the sewer and finally do something about it.