Lord Mann is The House magazine’s ‘campaigner of the week’ for his efforts to tackle antisemitism
Lord Mann, the former Labour MP who quit the Party over antisemitism, has been named ‘campaigner of the week’ by The House magazine for his work countering antisemitism.
As the Government’s new independent advisor on antisemitism, Lord Mann says “opposing antisemitism: to me the only odd thing is why everyone doesn’t do it.”
In a reference to polling of the Jewish community in recent years, he went on to say: “The notion that anyone feels unsafe in this country, feels that they don’t have a future in this country because of antisemitism, is abhorrent to everything that is British, everything about our country, everything about our values, everything about our Parliament.”
Lamenting the lack of leadership in Parliament on this issue, Lord Mann said: “The definition of leadership is to stand up against injustice and intolerance. And therefore every MP should be standing up against antisemitism… that’s why I get so angry when people choose not to…. You don’t pick and choose which bits of antisemitism you stand up against – you stand up against all of it.”
Lord Mann is concerned about “making sure there are consequences for the antisemites” and wishes to see the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism worldwide, “not just by governments and political parties but by football clubs, by universities, by employers.”
His message to the Jewish community: “you will not be left to fight antisemitism on your own”.
Asked about Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain’s letter urging tactical voting in the election to keep Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street, Lord Mann said: “it is a sad state of affairs that a respected rabbi feels it’s appropriate to be writing such a letter… the leader of the Labour Party should reflect on why it’s got to this appalling situation and work with me to turn it around.””
Lord Mann has previously warned that between overstatement and understatement of antisemitism, “the biggest danger is that we will understate the problem,” and has called Ken Livingstone a “f***ing disgrace” and a “Nazi apologist”.
Previously the MP for Bassetlaw, Lord Mann left Labour saying that Mr Corbyn had “given the green light to the antisemites” and that the Party leader was not “appropriate to be Prime Minister”. Lord Mann is now a crossbench peer.
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 57,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”
