Humiliating capitulation as Labour Party drops demand for an apology and discontinues attempt to purge Dame Margaret Hodge for calling Jeremy Corbyn an “antisemite”
The Labour Party has been forced into a humiliating capitulation by Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who the Party had attempted to discipline for calling Jeremy Corbyn “an antisemitic racist”.
The Party shocked many when it launched disciplinary action against Dame Margaret for remonstrating with Mr Corbyn after his National Executive Committee refused to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.
In response to the disciplinary action against Dame Margaret and a similar action against her colleague Ian Austin, Campaign Against Antisemitism asked both to become honorary patrons of the charity in a gesture of solidarity and appreciation for the manner in which they had bravely confronted antisemitism in their Party. They both accepted.
Campaign Against Antisemitism also included the handling of the matter in its letter referring the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The Labour Party initially offered to drop the action against Dame Margaret in return for an apology, but she has confirmed to Campaign Against Antisemitism that she did not apologise in any way and that the Labour Party capitulated nonetheless.
The Labour Party’s decision to unconditionally drop the complaint reinforces Campaign Against Antisemitism’s complaint to the Equality and Human Rights Commission that the disciplinary process against her constituted illegal victimisation of Dame Margaret for confronting antisemitism in the Party. The handling of the disciplinary action against Dame Margaret was in stark contrast to the failure to discipline National Executive Committee member Peter Willsman who ranted that Jewish “Trump fanatics” should not be listened to and that allegations of antisemitism were being “falsified”.
We are waiting to find out whether the action against Ian Austin has similarly been dropped.
Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The entire Jewish community was disgusted by the way that Dame Margaret was victimised simply for confronting antisemitism in the Labour Party, which is one of the reasons why we referred the Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. We applaud her for standing up against antisemitism in the Party and for refusing to bow to the considerable pressure put on her to apologise. The Labour Party’s humiliating capitulation just shows how disgraceful their action was, especially considering that Peter Willsman has faced no action over his appalling tirade in front of Labour’s entire National Executive Committee. The Party must now apologise to Dame Margaret and immediately drop its action against Ian Austin as well. We remain convinced that Dame Margaret was right to call Jeremy Corbyn an ‘antisemite’ and that under his leadership the Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic and an existential threat to British Jewry.”
I’m pleased that the Labour Party has finally dropped their ‘action’ against me. After 55 years of LP membership going after me instead of addressing the issue was wrong. In 2018 anti Semitism that has again reared its ugly head and the campaign against it goes on. 1/2
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) August 6, 2018
The Labour Party must adopt the IHRA definition in full to start to rebuild trust. Thanks to everyone for kind messages of support which have kept me going. 2/2
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) August 6, 2018
Just to be clear: there have been no apologies – on either side
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) August 6, 2018
