CAA and KCL study finds far-left Jew-hatred has now overtaken far-right in Britain and two-thirds of Corbyn’s vanguard of strongest supporters hold antisemitic views

Today, Campaign Against Antisemitism is releasing the results of our Antisemitism Barometer research, a multiyear study by Campaign Against Antisemitism which was designed and analysed by one of the foremost academics in his field from King’s College London. The study makes shocking findings about antisemitism in the Labour Party and British society, and how Jews are reacting.

The research has revealed that:

• Antisemitism on the far-left has overtaken antisemitism on the far-right;
• Jeremy Corbyn is now the candidate of choice for anti-Jewish racists;
• Despite claims that Labour’s antisemitism stems from ‘a few bad apples’, two thirds of Jeremy Corbyn’s vanguard of strongest supporters hold at least one antisemitic view;
• 84% of British Jews feel that Jeremy Corbyn is a threat specifically to the Jewish community;
• Two in five British Jews have considered emigrating over antisemitism in the past two years alone, 85% of them because of antisemitism in politics, with two thirds expressly naming the Labour Party or Jeremy Corbyn as their reason;
• Close to two thirds of British Jews believe that the authorities are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism, and a mere 35% of British Jews felt confident that antisemitic hate crimes against them would be prosecuted, a record low; and
• Almost half of British Jews believe that the Crown Prosecution Service is doing too little to fight antisemitism.

In the report, Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on the Government to urgently implement a series of recommendations on law enforcement, and for all political parties to adopt our manifesto for fighting antisemitism.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Far from being the champion of anti-racism that it holds itself out to be, the far-left is now home to even more anti-Jewish bigotry than the far-right. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the Labour Party, whose Jeremy Corbyn is now the politician of choice for antisemites. If the battles of old against the far-right tell us anything, it is that if we fail to unite against this toxic hatred, it will spread to threaten other minorities too.

“People will find it utterly chilling that in 2019, large swathes of the Jewish community are considering the drastic step of leaving the country they love because they fear racism in our politics. I believe in the people of our deeply decent country and I hope that this study will encourage them to stop and think how they can show their Jewish countrymen that regardless of politics, race or religion we stand together against antisemitism, that the Jewish community is not alone.”

The full report is available at antisemitism.org/barometer.

YouGov was commissioned to survey the British population’s attitudes towards Jews in 2018 and 2019. The YouGov survey was designed and analysed by Dr Daniel Allington of King’s College London. The polling was conducted prior to a General Election being called. Campaign Against Antisemitism also separately worked with partners to survey British Jews’ responses to antisemitism in 2018 and 2019. Dr Allington also designed and analysed the survey of the Jewish community, which was also conducted prior to a General Election being called. YouGov sample sizes for the survey of the British population were 1,606 in 2018 and 2,040 in 2019 (including boost samples from the ‘very left-wing’ and ‘very right-wing’ of 197 and 204 respectively). Campaign Against Antisemitism sample sizes for the surveys of British Jews were 2,103 in 2018 and 2,695 in 2019.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.