Labour MEP Mary Honeyball quits the Party citing leadership’s “shameful” failure to tackle antisemitism

Labour MEP, Mary Honeyball, has resigned from the Labour Party, slamming Jeremy Corbyn and the leadership’s “shameful” failure to tackle antisemitism.

Ms Honeyball is one of London’s longest serving MEPs. She has been a Labour member for 43 years, has served as a MEP from 2000 and retired at yesterday’s election.

Announcing her decision in the Evening Standard, she said: “The antisemitism currently infecting the Labour Party, I believe, derives from the Labour leadership’s animosity towards Israel primarily because the country is an ally of the United States. Although the State of Israel and the Jewish people are two completely different things, Corbyn and his allies appear to see fit to view them as virtually one and the same. Shamefully, the Labour leadership have done nothing like enough to purge the Labour Party of the racism shown towards its Jewish members.”

She also criticised Mr Corbyn for being “sympathetic” to Hizballah and Hamas.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”