Tag Archive for: Jeremy Corbyn

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Labour tried to have Party whistleblower prosecuted, and now Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington CLP debates rejection of International Definition of Antisemitism

The Labour Party tried to have one of the Panorama whistleblowers prosecuted, according to The Sunday Times.

Sam Matthews, a former head of governance and legal, was one of a number of former staffers turned courageous whistleblowers who featured on the BBC Panorama expose of antisemitism in the Labour Party and with whom the Party recently settled a defamation case.

It has now emerged, however, that he was also the subject of a criminal investigation instigated by Labour, which had reported him to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for alleged data breaches.

However, the ICO has now dropped the charges, having even interviewed Mr Matthews under caution, reportedly admitting that there was no evidence to substantiate the claims.

Mr Matthews revealed in the Panorama programme that he had contemplated suicide, such was his treatment while working at Labour Party headquarters. It is extraordinary that the Labour Party, of all institutions, could have treated its workers so appallingly and then, despite praising whistleblowers in every other industry, smeared these brave former staffers because they called out Labour’s own racism.

Mr Matthews and the other claimants in the defamation case against Labour were represented by Mark Lewis, an esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Islington North’s Junction Ward branch of the Labour Party, in Jeremy Corbyn’s local constituency, will debate whether to reject the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The motion, brought by a member of the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, also states that “We are deeply committed to opposing all forms of racism, including antisemitism. We are also deeply committed to opposing what we regard as false accusations of antisemitism.”

According to the JC, two years ago the Islington North CLP’s treasurer, Russell Smith-Becker, resigned citing Mr Corbyn’s “often tolerant” attitude toward antisemitism and worried that Labour had become “somewhere where antisemites feel comfortable and many Jews feel uncomfortable.”

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Donors to unofficial crowd-funder for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal expenses post horrendous comments denying Labour antisemitism and equating Zionism with racism

Donors to an unofficial crowd-funder for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal expenses have posted horrendous comments in support of the beleaguered former Labour leader.

The crowd-funder was launched by a supporter of Mr Corbyn’s and does not appear to have his formal endorsement, however the supporter said: “The funds on this campaign will not be touched and remain on GoFundMe until the details for distribution have been established with Jeremy’s office and I will continue to provide updates as they become available.”

Not only did some donors use names like “Adolf Hitler” and “B*stard Son of Netanyahu and Starmer”, but the online activist Habibi has alerted Campaign Against Antisemitism to some of the horrendous comments that donors – including those using what appear to be their real names – have posted. Many of the comments deny Labour antisemitism under Mr Corbyn, using phrases such as “false antisemitism accusations”, “smears”, “lies”, “false”, “trumped up”, “witch-hunt” and “stitch-up”.

Other comments suggested that such accusations come from “elitist tax dodging leeches that are trying to tarnish [Mr Corbyn’s] name” or “Anglo-American oligarchs”.

There were also concerns that Mr Corbyn was being “crucified”, and equations of Zionism and Israel with racism.

Mr Corbyn will have to decide whether he wishes to accept donations from “Adolf Hitler” and other antisemitism-deniers.

The campaign, called Jeremy’s Legal Fund and hosted by GoFundMe, has so far raised hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Corbyn is being sued by the journalist John Ware for defamation. Another defamation case, brought by the Jewish activist Richard Millet, is also underway.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Jeremy Corbyn deletes Wiley tweet without condemning antisemitism

Jeremy Corbyn has deleted a past tweet exchange with the grime artist Wiley, who has become embroiled in controversy over an extended antisemitic rant.

Wiley, whose real name is Richard Kylea Cowie Jr., appears to have shown support for the former Labour leader, who thanked him for his endorsement.

However, with Wiley now at the centre of his own antisemitism scandal, Mr Corbyn, whose tenure as Labour leader was marked by the Party’s institutional antisemitism, has apparently deleted the tweet, but has not issued any statement explaining why or condemning Wiley’s antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Jeremy Corbyn has not found time to express a shred of solidarity with the Jewish community even as #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate became Twitter’s top trending hashtag, but he has found time to cover his own tracks. Mr Corbyn’s deletion of his positive Twitter exchange with Wiley without any statement condemning his antisemitism suggests that he is acting purely out of self-interest to try to protect the shards of his shattered reputation as a supposed ‘anti-racist’.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism recently called for Mr Corbyn to be suspended from Labour after he made a conspiratorial statement about a legal settlement reached between Labour and former staffers turned whistleblowers.

Mr Corbyn has a long history of antisemitism controversies implicating him directly, and over 57,000 people signed our petition denouncing him as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Crowdfunder for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal defence gets donations from “Hitler” and “B*stard Son of Netanyahu and Starmer”

A crowdfunder launched to raise money for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal defence has received money from donors calling themselves “Adolf Hitler” and “B*stard Son of Netanyahu and Starmer”.

The crowdfunder was launched by a supporter of Mr Corbyn’s and does not appear to have his formal endorsement, however the supporter said: “The funds on this campaign will not be touched and remain on GoFundMe until the details for distribution have been established with Jeremy’s office and I will continue to provide updates as they become available.”

Other donors also used provocative names or left offensive comments, such as ‘Jack T’, who claimed that Mr Corbyn had been targeted by “people within the Labour Party working on behalf of the racist State of Israel”.

Another complained: “We love Jeremy Corbyn and he is all we got! Him being seen and propagated by reich wing media and portrayed like he can be the next S***ler is absurd beyond belief [sic].”

The campaign, called Jeremy’s Legal Fund and hosted by GoFundMe, has so far raised over £300,000.

Mr Corbyn is being sued by the journalist John Ware for defamation. Another defamation case, brought by the Jewish activist Richard Millet, is also underway.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ““Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party became institutionally anti-Semitic, driving Labour’s own workers to defy their own Party and blow the whistle on the Jew-hatred within it. It was Mr Corbyn’s senior team that directed a forceful effort to drag the whistleblowers’ names through the mud, in some cases driving them to the point of considering suicide. Instead of apologising inshore for the attempts to bully and silence these principled whistleblowers, Mr Corbyn has now attacked the Labour Party for apologising to them.”

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Leaked email from Corbyn ally shows he recognised that controversial leaked Labour report was misleading and feared the consequences

A leaked email from a senior Corbyn ally in Labour Party headquarters shows that he recognised that a controversial leaked report about the Party’s handling of antisemitism was misleading and that there may be adverse consequences following its dissemination.

Thomas Gardiner, who resigned a few weeks ago as Labour’s Director of Governance and Legal, is reported to have sent an email on 11th April to the Party’s General-Secretary saying that the report on Labour’s handling of antisemitism ought not to be circulated because emails and WhatsApp messages from Party staffers had been “presented selectively and without their true context in order to give a misleading picture.”

An unredacted version of the 851-page report was nevertheless leaked, giving rise to potential date breach claims that may cost the Labour Party millions of pounds in legal costs.

In his email, Mr Gardiner expressed concern that the report would “lay false blame” on him, that searches of staffers’ email accounts, including his own, were “not authorised” and “improper” and that use of confidential WhatsApp messages represented “a clear and unacceptable breach of confidence,” adding: “Further, these messages are presented selectively and without their true context in order to give a misleading picture.”

Although the report had by then been leaked, Mr Gardiner said “I realise it will not be helpful not to further use the report, given that it has apparently been leaked in a previous version, but I must register this formal objection.”

The report, which Campaign Against Antisemitism described at the time as “a desperate last-ditch attempt to deflect and discredit allegations of antisemitism”, was originally compiled for submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). On advice from Labour’s lawyers, the Party has not submitted the report to the EHRC.

The EHRC launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party in May 2019 following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Ms Formby has released a statement saying that the searches of staff email and social media accounts were authorised and were carried out in response to requests by the EHRC. Other allies of Mr Corbyn’s have reportedly claimed that Mr Gardiner had supported the compilation and publication of the report but rowed back only after it was leaked.

Labour is currently conducting an internal investigation into the provenance, leaking and content of the report.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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John Ware to sue Jeremy Corbyn for defamation and former Labour General-Secretary Lord McNicol to sue Party for leaked report that tried to blame him for antisemitism crisis

John Ware, the maker of the BBC Panorama documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic”, is reportedly suing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for repeating libels that saw the Party reach a settlement with Mr Ware and the whistleblowers featured in the programme.

The programme, which was televised in July 2019, showed former Labour Party employees speaking out publicly to reveal Mr Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism. The programme explained how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to run Labour’s disciplinary process independently, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides, who were brazen in their efforts to subvert due process.

During the programme Labour’s press team made claims that the staffers featured had political axes to grind and lacked credibility, and the whistleblowers and Mr Ware commenced libel proceedings against the Labour Party.

This week, the Party settled the case, issuing an apology and reportedly paying damages and costs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

However, Mr Corbyn described the settlement as “disappointing”, saying that it “risks giving credibility to misleading and inaccurate allegations about action taken to tackle antisemitism in the Labour Party in recent years.”

It is understood that Mr Ware will now sue Mr Corbyn directly.

Mr Ware explained his motivations in an impassioned article.

Meanwhile, a former Labour General-Secretary is suing the Labour Party over the leaked internal report which he claims tried to blame him for the Party’s antisemitism crisis.

Lord McNicol, a moderate who served in the role under Ed Miliband and in the first years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, will be joining some fifty other individuals named in the report who have brought legal claims against the Party after their names were circulated on social media and far-right websites.

The report, compiled in the last weeks of Mr Corbyn’s leadership, tried to deflect from his and his allies’ failings and cast blame on staff whom it claimed were ideologically motivated to undermine Mr Corbyn. It is widely believed that the compilation and leak of the report were intended to undermine the investigation into Labour antisemitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). A full statutory investigation was launched by the EHRC in May 2019 following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Mr Ware’s and Lord McNicol’s case, as well as those of the whistleblowers, have been brought by Mark Lewis, a highly esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has this week called for Mr Corbyn to be suspended from Labour after his conspiratorial statement about the legal settlement.

The damages and legal costs arising from the multiple cases arising from Labour’s antisemitism crisis could amount to millions of pounds.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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CAA calls for Jeremy Corbyn to be suspended from Labour after spreading further conspiracy theories about antisemitism in the Party, this time regarding the courageous whistleblowers

Campaign Against Antisemitism is calling for Jeremy Corbyn to be suspended from the Labour Party after he called the Party’s decision to settle the defamation case brought by the Panorama whistleblowers and the journalist John Ware “a political decision” that was “disappointing”.

Mr Corbyn said that the settlement reached today, which reportedly requires the Labour Party to issue an apology and pay damages and costs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, “risks giving credibility to misleading and inaccurate allegations about action taken to tackle antisemitism in the Labour Party in recent years.” In other words, Mr Corbyn was sticking to the same line that he and the Party took when he was Leader.

The outrage is exacerbated by the fact that ordinarily the Labour Party and Mr Corbyn might have been expected to stand up for whistleblowing workers who call out abuses by their employers. Indeed Mr Corbyn even tweeted as much in 2017, quoting his Shadow Attorney-General Shami Chakrabarti saying: “Whistleblowers keep us safe. We can’t allow them to be silenced.”

It now appears, however, that Mr Corbyn believes that those whistleblowers who tried to keep Jews safe by revealing how the Labour Party under his leadership failed to address antisemitism should be silenced.

Mr Corbyn has a long history of antisemitism controversies implicating him directly, and over 57,000 people signed our petition denouncing him as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.” Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted three complaints against Mr Corbyn over the years since 2016 and these complaints formed the basis of our referral of the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

It is past time for Mr Corbyn to be disciplined and suspended by the Labour Party.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “From the backbenches, Jeremy Corbyn continues to spread conspiracy theories to cover up how the Labour Party became institutionally racist under his leadership. A few weeks ago he gaslit the Jewish community by claiming that the EHRC is ‘part of the government machine’ and now he is gaslighting the whistleblowers he bullied, some almost to the point of suicide. We have been calling for Mr Corbyn to be disciplined since 2016. We are again calling on Sir Keir Starmer to suspend Mr Corbyn now and open a disciplinary investigation.” 

The Panorama programme, titled “Is Labour Antisemitic?”, was televised in July 2019 and showed former Labour Party employees speaking out publicly to reveal Labour leader Mr Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism. The programme explained how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to run Labour’s disciplinary process independently, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides, who were brazen in their efforts to subvert due process.

During the programme Labour’s press team made claims that the staffers featured had political axes to grind and lacked credibility, and the whistleblowers and Mr Ware commenced libel proceedings against the Labour Party. The libel cases were brought by Mark Lewis, a highly esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Labour settles defamation case with Panorama whistleblowers with apology and significant payout, demonstrating how ready Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour was to betray its principles and people to cover its institutional racism against Jews

The Labour Party has settled a defamation case in the High Court brought by seven whistleblowers who featured in last year’s BBC Panorama’s programme titled “Is Labour Antisemitic?” as well as the journalist behind the programme, John Ware.

The programme, which was televised in July 2019, showed former Labour Party employees speaking out publicly to reveal Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism. The programme explained how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to run Labour’s disciplinary process independently, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides, who were brazen in their efforts to subvert due process.

During the programme Labour’s press team made claims that the staffers featured had political axes to grind and lacked credibility, and the whistleblowers and Mr Ware commenced libel proceedings against the Labour Party. The libel cases were brought by Mark Lewis, a highly esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Today, the Labour Party settled the case, issuing an apology and reportedly paying damages and costs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Corbyn and his former senior aide Seumas Milne and the Party’s former General Secretary, Jennie Formby, are reportedly uneasy with the Party’s decision to settle the case.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Today’s extraordinary settlement shows that the Labour Party recognises that its attempts to discredit the courageous whistleblowers, as well as one of the nation’s most respected journalists, were indefensible. To see the Labour Party trying to destroy the reputation of its own workers for calling out Jew-hatred, in some cases causing serious mental health conditions, was an ignominious spectacle and demonstrated how, under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour was ready to ruthlessly betray its own principles and people in order to cover its institutional racism against Jews. As the complainant in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s statutory investigation into that same institutional racism, we expect the Party to adopt a similarly apologetic approach when the Commission reports.” 

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Miriam Margolyes says “a conspiracy within the Party motivated from Israel” forced Jeremy Corbyn to stand down as Labour Leader

The outspoken actress Miriam Margolyes has claimed that former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was “forced” to resign due to “a conspiracy within the Party motivated from Israel”.

Ms Margolyes made the comments to The Times, adding that Mr Corbyn “was not and never was an antisemite,” apparently despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Over 57,000 people signed our petition denouncing Mr Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The notion that accusations of antisemitism are made by Jews in bad faith or emanate from Israel – supposedly as a means to undermine criticism of the Jewish state – are themselves antisemitic tropes.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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CAA calls on Sandwell Council and Dudley Council to take action against current and former council leaders after Labour opens antisemitism investigations

Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for “strong and decisive action” against the Leader of Sandwell Council and the former leader of Dudley Council after it emerged that the Labour Party is investigating them over antisemitism.

Cllr Yvonne Davies, the current Council leader at Sandwell, is being investigated over tweets she sent in 2018, one of which promoted a petition calling for a parliamentary debate over whether Israel has an “improper influence” over British politics, a notion reminiscent of historically popular claims of excessive Jewish power in national politics. In another tweet, Cllr Davies linked to a story titled “Is Israel’s hand behind the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn?”, alongside which she commented: “This makes interesting reading if anyone is wanting to understand where all this emphasis on Labour and antisematism (sic) comes from…”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is an example of antisemitism.

A complaint regarding Cllr Davies submitted to Labour reportedly accuses her of “breaching Labour’s social media policy”.

Cllr Davies reportedly commented: “I do retweet stuff that I probably shouldn’t, but I do not have an antisemitic bone in my body. I have a career of tackling discrimination and unfairness and I would certainly not consider that people who are Jewish have any influence at all over matters that we deal with in society. Whether countries do, and clearly Russia, China, Israel…a lot of countries get involved in stuff for political purposes…but I don’t relate that to anybody’s religion and I think anybody that does is making a big mistake. This is about politics, it’s not about religion at all. Certainly I will be careful in future about what I retweet, because clearly I’m aware that there is a lot of sensitivity around this issue and that things can be taken out of context.”

In Dudley, Cllr Pete Lowe, a former leader of the council, former parliamentary candidate and former Labour candidate for West Midlands Metro Mayor, posted a tweet purporting to shop historical maps of Israel, which he shared in order to criticise the dismissal of Rebecca Long-Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet for sharing an article that contained the antisemitic conspiracy theory. The picture was accompanied in the tweet by a caption from Cllr Lowe reading: “No words of explanation….just in case! #RebeccaLongBailey #LabourParty”. The tweet was subsequently deleted.

Ian Austin, the former Labour MP for Dudley North who quit over antisemitism in the Party, described the tweets as “completely unacceptable”. Mr Austin is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The suggestion that Israel has an ‘improper influence’ in British politics and is ‘behind attacks’ on Jeremy Corbyn is totally unacceptable. The idea that the Jews – or the Jewish state – have outsized influence in national affairs is an infamous antisemitic trope that has no place in political parties or on a local council, let alone coming from the Leader of the council. Both the Labour Party and the council must take strong and decisive action. Those defending Rebecca Long-Bailey’s promotion of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, be they MPs or local councillors, must also be brought to book. At a time when so many are showing solidarity against racism, it is appalling that some individuals in Labour continue to defend or indulge in antisemitism.”

Meanwhile, in Greenwich in London, the Leader of the Council has reportedly referred a fellow Labour councillor to the Party over a series of tweets promoting the controversial group Labour Against Witchhunt” and defending Ms Long-Bailey. Cllr David Stanley reportedly promoted a petition in the form of an open letter to Mr Corbyn, who was then Leader of the Labour Party, worrying that “any criticism of the actions of the state of Israel is now immediately conflated with antisemitism” and “a cynical alliance between those who wish to deflect criticism of Israel and Zionism, and the right-wing in the Labour Party and the news media, who oppose your wider politics.” Cllr Stanley also apparently retweeted posts with the hashtag #IStandWithChrisWilliamson, in reference to the disgraced former Labour MP, Chris Williamson.

Cllr Stanley said: “I have always condemned antisemitism in the strongest possible terms, and fully supported Greenwich council signing up to the full [International Definition of Antisemitism]. I have no time for antisemitic conspiracy theories, but recognise that criticism of the state of Israel can sometimes be wrongly conflated with antisemitism. I support a fair and rigorous procedure for those Labour members who are subject to disciplinary measures due to alleged antisemitic comments.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls for action against these three councillors both by the Labour Party and by their own local authorities.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Divisive Corbyn aide Seumas Milne and Labour’s controversial complaints chief Thomas Gardiner reportedly both leave after years at centre of antisemitism crisis

Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn’s divisive senior aide, and Thomas Gardiner, Labour’s Director of Governance and Legal Affairs, have both quit their employment with the Party.

Mr Milne, who has a record of espousing extreme political views, served as Executive Director of Strategy and Communications under Jeremy Corbyn. As a political appointee, his departure following the election of Sir Keir Starmer as Leader of the Party was widely considered inevitable.

Thomas Gardiner’s role in Labour Headquarters involved overseeing the catastrophic complaints process, and became known for his decision that a meme showing an alien crustacean with a Star of David emblazoned on its back sucking the life out of the Statue of Liberty was somehow not antisemitic.

Mr Gardiner’s departure represents the next stage of the clearout of controversial Labour staff by the new General-Secretary, David Evans, who replaced Corbyn ally Jennie Formby.

Mr Gardiner is being replaced by Alex Barros-Curtis, an aide of Sir Keir, on a temporary basis.

While the removal of tainted staff is a welcome development, the promised independent disciplinary process has yet to materialise.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Oxford branch of Black Lives Matter apologises for promoting event using antisemitic mural that Jeremy Corbyn defended

The Oxford branch of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has apologised for using the antisemitic ‘Freedom of Humanity’ mural as a cover photo for a Facebook event.

The mural originally appeared in East London in October 2012 after an outcry. In 2018 then-Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, was discovered to have defended the mural, which featured apparently-Jewish bankers beneath a pyramid often used by conspiracy theorists playing Monopoly on a board carried by straining, oppressed workers, several of whom had dark or black skin.

After a local councillor criticised the advertisement, Oxford BLM issued an apology, saying that the matter was “deeply concerning and the person who used the image is deeply sorry. We absolutely do not condone the image used and have since removed it. We will use this time to learn from their mistakes and ensure every person who attends our events feels safe. We stand resolutely against antisemitism, and see our struggles for liberation as interconnected.”

The mural has recently been promoted without apology by the American rapper Ice Cube, also in connection with the Black Lives Matter movement. It is inexcusable to sully the noble cause of fighting anti-black racism by using expressions of anti-Jewish racism. Racism cannot be combated by recourse to other forms of racism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The use of a blatantly antisemitic mural – which has even been in the news in recent years due to Jeremy Corbyn’s defence of it – to promote an event is unacceptable, and we are pleased that the Oxford chapter of the BLM movement removed it within a few hours and issued an apology promising to learn from the mistake. It is regrettable that the national BLM movement did not show similar contrition when it tweeted that Zionism ‘gagged’ Britain yesterday. BLM should aspire to be a movement against racism that unifies people and achieves lasting change, not a movement that spreads hatred and achieves lasting division. You cannot fight prejudice with prejudice.”

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CAA calls on Sir Keir Starmer to discipline Jeremy Corbyn and group of far-left Labour MPs demanding reinstatement of Rebecca Long-Bailey despite her sharing antisemitic conspiracy theory

Labour’s far-left Socialist Campaign Group of MPs met with Sir Keir Starmer today to express their opposition to the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet after she shared an article containing an antisemitic trope baselessly linking Israel to the killing of George Floyd. Not only did they call for Ms Long-Bailey’s punishment to be reversed, showing that they have learned nothing from this scandal, but they also revealed the extent of their obsession by then managing to spend the rest of the meeting discussing Israel.

Ms Long-Bailey was sacked for sharing an article in which the actress Maxine Peake claimed that Israel was to blame for the killing of Mr Floyd. Ms Peake is reported in The Independent to have said: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.” This is an antisemitic conspiracy theory, as it needlessly and baselessly injects the Jewish state into a matter that has nothing to do with it. Even Ms Peake was forced to admit it was untrue.

Numerous far-left outriders and MPs have tried to claim that casting the trope as antisemitic is to silence criticism of Israeli policy, despite there being no grounds at all for the conspiracy theory that kneeling on people’s necks is an innovation of the Jewish state.

Jeremy Corbyn, the former Leader of the Labour Party, apparently urged Sir Keir in the meeting to take a tough line on Israeli policy and to meet the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, presumably in the hope that the group might persuade Sir Keir, contrary to the view of the mainstream Jewish community and elementary logic, that the conspiracy theory is not antisemitic.

It is extraordinary – but wholly unsurprising – that a meeting precipitated by the offensive injection of Israel into an unrelated matter is devoted to discussion of Israel.

Other far-left MPs have also weighed in on Ms Long-Bailey’s behalf in the last two days.

John McDonnell, the former Shadow Chancellor, launched a petition to reinstate Ms Long-Bailey.

Richard Burgon, a former Shadow minister under Mr Corbyn, stated: “I don’t think she should’ve been sacked for sharing The Independent’s interview with Maxine Peake.”

John Trickett MP wondered “what has Sir Keir got against Northern socialists from working class backgrounds?” and implicitly described Ms Long-Bailey’s sacking a “provocation”.

Claudia Webbe MP complained that Labour should be more focused on calling for Cabinet ministers to be sacked.

Ian Lavery MP simply tweeted: “I support @RLong_Bailey.” In a video he urged Labour members to stay and “fight” the “new direction” in the Party.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who has herself courted controversy, said that she was “disappointed” with Ms Long-Bailey’s dismissal.

Clive Lewis chimed in as well, and so did Aspana Begum. Nadia Whittome called the departure of Ms Long-Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet a “loss for our Party”.

Zarah Sultana, a new MP with one of the longest records of Jew-baiting statements, said that she was “disappointed” at the departure of Ms Long-Bailey.

Ms Long-Bailey herself revealed that she had learned nothing from the episode, reportedly saying that she understood why the claim made by Ms Peake had caused “extreme concern” but insisted that politicians should not shy away from talking about police brutality. “There is a valid concern about police practices across the world and I don’t think that, worded in the right way, it’s racist or antisemitic to draw attention to that,” she said, apparently unwilling or unable to grasp that her words still implied that the Jewish state has something to do with police brutality in the United States of America.

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on Sir Keir Starmer to discipline the MPs who have defended Ms Long-Bailey, at best turning a blind eye to the racism that she promoted, or in some cases disagreeing that there was anything wrong with her having done so. That they raised the matter of Israeli policy at their meeting with Sir Keir suggests the latter.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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CAA writes to Sir Keir Starmer seeking a timetable for overhauling Labour’s corrupted disciplinary process and action against senior figures including Jeremy Corbyn

Today, Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to Sir Keir Starmer welcoming a report that he intends to treat the report of the statutory investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) into antisemitism in the Labour Party as “a help rather than a distraction”.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

However, we have also voiced our concern to Sir Keir that he has taken no action against Jeremy Corbyn, who has recently claimed that the EHRC is in fact not independent but a “part of the Government machine”. Mr Corbyn’s assertion is a conspiracy theory, and it is clearly one that he is intent on promoting because he used his first interview since standing down to do so.

Whilst we welcomed suspensions and expulsions under Sir Keir’s leadership, we also asked Sir Keir to announce a timetable for the reformation of Labour’s corrupted disciplinary process. Additionally, we asked him to take action against various senior Labour figures who had shared a platform with activists expelled from the Party over antisemitism — Sir Keir had pledged to suspend any member of the Party who did so.

Finally, we noted our considerable concern that Sir Keir has still not responded to our letter of 4th May, nor engaged with us in any way as the complainant in the EHRC’s statutory investigation.

Last year, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that vast numbers of British Jews had considered leaving the country over antisemitism in politics and that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we hold all political parties to account.

Full text of the letter

Dear Sir Keir,

We were pleased to read a report today in the Jewish Chronicle that you intend to treat the report of the statutory investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) into antisemitism in the Labour Party as “a help rather than a distraction”.

As the complainant in the EHRC’s investigation, we referred the Party to the EHRC because we are keen to ensure that the Party is purged of antisemites and those who defend and enable them, so that Labour can return to being what it once was: a fiercely anti-racist force in British public life.

Since you appear to have decided to back the EHRC’s investigation, we would like to ask you to take action over the claim by your MP, Jeremy Corbyn, in the fringe blog, Middle East Eye, that the EHRC, whose investigation will be so crucial to the future of the Labour Party, is in fact not independent but a “part of the Government machine”.

Mr Corbyn’s remark is a conspiracy theory, and it is clearly one that he is intent on promoting because he used his first interview since standing down to do so. The EHRC is, as you are aware, a legal body, created by a Labour Government, whose vital function is to protect the country from racism. On the grounds of this conspiracy theory alone, Mr Corbyn should be subjected to a disciplinary investigation by the Party.

Indeed, there are many grounds for disciplining Mr Corbyn, which we have documented in complaints to Labour for the past four years. It is high time that they are investigated, not least because he has engaged in behaviour for which others have been recently expelled.

Whilst we welcome the suspensions and expulsions of antisemites under your leadership, we note that despite us having pointed out the lamentable record of Afzal Khan MP in relation to antisemitism, he remains in post as Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. His appointment has sent an unmistakable signal that public dissemination of antisemitism is not a bar to high office under your leadership.

Along with Mr Corbyn and Mr Khan, there are numerous Labour MPs and office holders who must be investigated under a fair, transparent and efficient disciplinary process, including Diane Abbott MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP and Salma Yaqoob, who have shared a platform with those expelled from the Party over allegations of antisemitism. You had pledged to suspend any member who shared platforms with such people.

However, we are disappointed that we are still waiting for you to respond to our letter of 4th May, sent to you on the one-month anniversary of your election as leader of the Labour Party, in which we sought your commitment to:

  • Announce a timetable for reforming Labour’s corrupted disciplinary process;
  • Honour your pledge on platform-sharing by suspending Ms Abbott, Ms Ribeiro-Addy and Ms Yaqoob; and
  • Remove Mr Khan from the position of Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons to which you promoted him.

We have praised your declared intention to “tear this poison [of antisemitism] out by its roots” but we believe that if you leave Mr Khan in his position and permit senior Party figures to go unpunished, including Mr Corbyn, Ms Abbott, Ms Ribeiro-Addy and Ms Yaqoob, you will send a clear message to others in the Party that such behaviour will go unpunished.

It is also of considerable concern to us that you have yet to engage with us as complainant in the EHRC’s statutory investigation, and that you have yet to even set out a timetable for introducing an overhauled disciplinary process. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Falter
Chief Executive

Joe Glasman
Head of Political and Government Investigations

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Labour MP promotes article claiming Jeremy Corbyn was brought down by “lies”, “mob politics” and “dark forces”, but then deletes tweet and apologises

A Labour MP promoted an article that claimed that Jeremy Corbyn, the former Leader of the Labour Party, was electorally unsuccessful due to “lie after lie” told about him, “mob politics” and “dark forces”, before deleting the tweet and apologising.

Margaret Greenwood, who is the Shadow Minister for Schools, tweeted that the article was “important reading” before deleting the tweet. It is believed that the deletion was due to pressure from Sir Keir Starmer’s office.

Ms Greenwood subsequently tweeted an apology for her original tweet, writing: “I shared an article by Peter Oborne and David Hearst as I thought it interesting that 2 distinguished journalists would write about how Jeremy Corbyn was undermined by the press when leader of the Labour Party. I understand that some people have found this offensive. I want to be clear I had no intention of causing offence and so have removed the tweet. Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend.”

The article claimed that Mr Corbyn was the victim of a “lynch mob” by the media and acquitted him of charges of antisemitism, faulting him only for “poor judgement”, for example “in joining various internet forums in his years on the backbenches.”

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

 

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LBC caller rips Sir Keir Starmer for standing by Corbyn while Jewish community was crying out, as listeners on YouTube post antisemitic comments

A Jewish caller to the radio channel LBC accused Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of spending five years standing by Jeremy Corbyn and campaigning to make him Prime Minister, noting that it is “convenient” for Sir Keir to be “saying the right things now, that’s not principled…that’s empty words.”

Sir Keir did not try to defend his support for Mr Corbyn but instead noted that “within hours of becoming leader” he “reached out to Jewish leaders” and met them within his first few days in office, had a “frank discussion” and explained his intentions, and that “they have given me enough trust to do what I’ve got to do. I’m well aware of the scale of the task. I will be judged on my actions.” He added: “all I ask is that they and you give me the space to show what I will do and I will kick antisemites out of the Labour Party.’’

Asked by host Nick Ferrari whether he trusted the independence of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Sir Keir said that he did, and noted that he even campaigned to establish the body in the first place. Recently, other Labour MPs, including Mr Corbyn, have questioned the independence of the EHRC, which is investigating antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Speaking to another Jewish caller, Sir Keir said: “We must root out antisemitism in the Labour Party and I’m absolutely determined to do that.” He added that “one of the first things I did as Labour leader was to make a full apology.”

In the context of anti-black racism, Sir Keir called for “training for everyone in criminal justice”. Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the provision of anti-racism training and has also long called for specific antisemitism training for law enforcement, particularly for the Crown Prosecution Service after its repeated failures to prosecute antisemitic criminals.

The interview was streamed on YouTube, where users made antisemitic and offensive comments in real time such as “what a kosher farce”; “can you criticise Israel”; “which would he put first: Jewish interests or British interests?”; “the truth is antisemetic”; “not George Soros,” alluding to the Jewish financier, philanthropist and political activist who is often at the centre of antisemitic conspriacy theories; “Jewish interests are not British interest”; “0.5% of the population gets most of the attention again. How odd”; and “another antisemitism question LBC set this up.”

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Jeremy Corbyn says EHRC is just “part of the Government machine” in first interview since stepping down as Labour leader in latest attempt to undermine investigation into Party’s antisemitism

Jeremy Corbyn has rubbished the independence of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), saying that it is “part of the Government machine” and that its independence as been “taken away” by the Conservatives.

Mr Corbyn made the remarks in his first interview since stepping down as Labour leader, which he gave to the fringe blog, Middle East Eye, which has a history of belittling Labour antisemitism. The interview was conducted by the controversial journalist, Peter Oborne, and the full video will apparently be available tomorrow.

The EHRC launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party on 28th May 2019 following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Asked whether the EHRC’s alleged impartiality would affect its report, Mr Corbyn reportedly replied: “Let’s see what happens.”

Mr Corbyn further claimed that the EHRC was “underfunded” by the Conservative Government which, “for some reason, which I don’t fully understand…decided to take away its independent status and make it part of the government machine.”

Mr Corbyn added that had he won the 2019 General Election he would have restored the EHRC’s independence.

Mr Corbyn’s basis for questioning the EHRC’s independence is not, however, clear. This is also not the first time that Mr Corbyn has tried to undermine the credibility of the independent body (which was established by a Labour Government) investigating his Party for racism: during the 2019 General Election campaign, Mr Corbyn pledged to reform the EHRC if he won power, again without providing a basis for his Party’s concerns, leaving observers to speculate that it was due to the EHRC’s investigation.

Mr Corbyn’s remarks are just the latest attempt by the far-left to question the EHRC’s credibility. Recently, other far-left figures have also suggested that the EHRC may itself be racist, or that if it concludes that the Labour Party is racist it means that it is racist toward other minorities rather than Jews.

Incredibly, Mr Corbyn complained that claims that he had tolerated antisemitism were “wrong and extremely unfair” and that “I’m the one that actually introduced a process for dealing with it,” a common refrain by those seeking to defend Mr Corbyn and the former General Secretary of the Labour Party, Jennie Formby, during whose disastrous tenure the EHRC launched its investigation. Mr Corbyn insisted that the number of cases of antisemitism in the Labour Party was “small” or, at another point in the interview, “very small”. He praised the Chakrabarti Report, which was widely panned as a whitewash and whose author was rewarded by Mr Corbyn for protecting him with a peerage (despite his earlier promise not to award peerages).

Mr Corbyn recalled his mother’s involvement in the historic Cable Street demonstrations against antisemitic fascism and insisted that antisemitism is “absolutely, totally unacceptable in any form”, even though he himself has indulged in it on multiple occasions and worked to protect or elevate allies and supporters who had done so as well. Mr Corbyn even had the audacity to lament how Jewish Labour MPs were being “troll[ed]”, even though those same Jewish women MPs either themselves called him an “antisemitic racist” or complained that he did nothing to assist them, declining even to communicate with them for months on end until two were hounded out of the Party. Regarding such MPs, Mr Corbyn not only showed no remorse but even suggested that he may have been “too tolerant of people”.

The interview was an indication that Mr Corbyn will retreat during his retirement from leadership to the far-left fringes where he has always felt at home.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with a fringe blog questioning the independence of the Equality and Human Rights Commission is just the latest attempt by the far-left to try to undermine the EHRC in anticipation of its report into the Party’s antisemitism during his leadership. Mr Corbyn and his allies have repeatedly suggested that the EHRC is not impartial and even that it itself may be racist, and that therefore its conclusions cannot be trusted. These self-proclaimed ‘anti-racist campaigners’ are so blinded by their own prejudices and self-righteousness that they cannot see the injury that they are causing to the very minorities they profess to care about. The era of Mr Corbyn’s leadership may be over but the sordid campaign to rehabilitate his ghastly legacy is in full swing.”

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy share platform with Stop The War’s Lindsay German who denies Labour antisemitism and backed disgraced Chris Williamson

The former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, joined former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and fellow MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy on a platform with a controversial activist who has a history of denying antisemitism in the Labour Party and who backed the disgraced former Labour MP, Chris Williamson.

Lindsay German has repeatedly denied Labour’s institutional antisemitism, describing the allegations as a “witch-hunt”, a line often used by Mr Williamson, whom she has defended, and his allies.

Ms German is a convener of the dubious group, Stop The War Coalition, which has appeared in the past to advocate war against Israel and whose marches routinely feature antisemitic tropes.

The online event comes only days after Sir Keir Starmer failed to take any action against Ms Abbott and Ms Ribeiro-Addy for appearing on a platform with former Labour members expelled from the Party in the wake of antisemitic incidents, despite his election pledge to suspend MPs and members caught doing so. The event was a grotesque attempt to promote the disingenuous, deplorable and divisive claim that addressing Labour antisemitism is somehow racist against the BAME community.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Where have they been for the past five years? The first research of its kind on each of the new Shadow Cabinet members’ records on antisemitism

Sir Keir Starmer has selected his Shadow Cabinet, following his election as Leader of the Labour Party. During the tenure of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party became institutionally antisemitic, was investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism, and caused almost half of all British Jews to consider leaving the country.

In these unique circumstances, it is of interest to the Jewish community and the wider public what the members of the new Shadow Cabinet have said and done over the past five years in respect of Labour’s antisemitism crisis.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has analysed the records of every member of the new Shadow Cabinet in the first research of its kind, available in full below. We previously published our analysis of Sir Keir’s record.

The deepest stain on the records of each of the new members is their overall inaction during the years of Mr Corbyn’s leadership despite the Party’s descent into racism. They were bystanders when several Jewish colleagues were hounded out of the Party, and they stood by too when principled colleagues made the difficult decision to leave the Party because they could not countenance campaigning for the antisemite Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister, which all of the new members of the Shadow Cabinet did at the end of last year. Indeed some members of Sir Keir’s Shadow Cabinet served in Mr Corbyn’s. Collectively, they have a mountain to climb in order to reclaim the authority to speak out against antisemitism — or indeed any form of prejudice.

Some of Sir Keir’s Shadow Cabinet members have long records on antisemitism – whether positive, negative or mixed – but it is equally telling when their records are short, as it signifies just how little they did as their once fiercely anti-racist Party became mired in anti-Jewish hatred.

Contents

Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party

Angela Rayner, who won election as Deputy Leader and has also been appointed Chair of the Labour Party, served as Shadow Education Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.

On 27th January 2015, she published an article both in the Morning Star and on the official website of Unison North West entitled: “Inside the Factory of Genocide.” In the article, describing a visit to Auschwitz, she referenced Norman Finkelstein’s controversial work The Holocaust Industry — in which the author argues that the American Jewish establishment exploits the Holocaust for political and financial gain — calling it “a seminal book”. On 28th November 2018, it was discovered by Twitter users that Ms Rayner had reposted her 2015 article on Facebook in January 2018, on Holocaust Memorial Day. It was also reported that Ms Rayner had apologised after the exposure of her Facebook post had caused outrage in the Jewish community, saying that “I regret the choice of quote I used to illustrate it, and now that I know more about the context I would not make that reference again. I apologise for what was a genuine misunderstanding, in what was always intended to be a message of solidarity with the Jewish community. This underscores the importance of engagement with the Jewish community to improve understanding about this issue.”

Towards the end of the summer of 2018, when Labour was mired in numerous controversies, including over adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, Ms Rayner posted a tweet about the Labour Party being subject to “smears”. When questioned whether she was referring to antisemitism (as deniers of Labour’s antisemitism crisis routinely claim that the allegations of anti-Jewish racism in the Party are “smears”), Ms Rayner insisted that she was not referring to antisemitism but rather smears in general, but did not elaborate. She also deleted her original tweet.

It is not known whether disciplinary action has been taken by the Labour Party against Ms Rayner. In November 2019, Campaign Against Antisemitism put these matters to her, but did not receive a response.

However, Ms Rayner has also said, in 2018, that “antisemitism has no place in our politics” and that she felt “a little frustrated” with the slow implementation of the whitewash Chakrabarti report in antisemitism in the Labour Party. In an event with a Jewish communal group (which was criticised at the time for hosting her), Ms Rayner also said that “those who distort history by likening Hitler to Zionism are no longer welcome” in the Labour Party.

In 2019 Ms Rayner tweeted support for Luciana Berger when she faced deselection by her local party branch, but when Ms Berger was eventually hounded out of the Party, Ms Rayner nonetheless insisted that Labour was not institutionally antisemitic.

Ms Rayner rejected calls by a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee to abolish the EHRC after it announced its investigation following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

During her campaign for the deputy leadership, Ms Rayner said: “At my launch, the first line in the sand is antisemitism. Cross that line and you’re out. Apologies are worthless without action.” She also pledged to make Labour’s disciplinary process independent.

Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

Anneliese Dodds was elected to the House of Commons in 2017 during Jeremy Corbyn’s first General Election campaign and served as his Shadow Treasury Minister. 

She is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism. She has also engaged with the local Jewish community in her constituency and condemned an antisemitic incident there. Ms Dodds described the mural that Mr Corbyn initially defended as “clearly antisemitic”, and called for the Party’s investigations into Dame Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, who had both condemned antisemitism in the Labour Party, to be dropped.

However, Ms Dodds gave a lukewarm response when asked whether Labour should have an independent disciplinary process for antisemitism cases, preferring to express “empathy” and “solidarity” rather than discuss details, an approach she has taken on other occasions as well.

Lisa Nandy, Shadow Foreign Secretary

Lisa Nandy sat in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet in its first few months, but she, along with numerous colleagues, quit over internal Party disagreements, helping to prompt the 2016 leadership contest. She was, however, open to rejoining Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet thereafter if invited.

Ms Nandy has consistently spoken out against anti-Jewish racism in the Labour Party and has acknowledged that a “particular sort of antisemitism has found its home on the far-left throughout history.” She added: “I have been a member of this party for twenty years, and what angers me most is the assertion that a person cannot be left wing and stand up to antisemitism — standing up to antisemitism is a core part of my values.”

She also criticised the handling of the revelations of historic antisemitic statements by Naz Shah in 2016 and opposed the readmission into Labour of the disgraced then-MP, Chris Williamson, in 2019, observing that “we have no right to pick and choose the type of racism we confront.”

Ms Nandy participated in an event at the Labour Party conference in 2019 that featured Omar Barghouti (appearing via video link), who rejects Israel as a Jewish State and is a prominent figure in the BDS movement, the tactics of which an overwhelming majority of Jews find intimidating. However, Ms Nandy left the room before Mr Barghouti spoke. More recently, Ms Nandy endorsed a troubling platform of policies issued by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which we have found to be riddled with bigotry, and reportedly backed the idea of a ban on arms sales to Israel.

During her bid for the Party’s leadership, Ms Nandy made fighting antisemitism in Labour a central plank of her campaign, calling it “a crisis in the soul of our Party” and pledging to take “personal responsibility” for resolving it, including by introducing antisemitism training for members and staff and lowering the threshold for suspension over allegations of racism. She also promised to resolve cases swiftly and under a fixed timetable through an independent disciplinary process; prevent the readmission of prominent offenders and suspend those who supported or campaigned for them; implement the EHRC’s recommendations in full; relate to the Jewish community only through genuine representative organisations; and engage Labour’s Jewish affiliate to provide antisemitism training.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Home Secretary

Nick Thomas-Symonds served as Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Solicitor-General and as his Shadow Home Office minister.

Mr Thomas-Symonds defended and backed Labour’s controversial alternative code on antisemitism, which the Party briefly proposed in lieu of adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism, and he was also criticised for not expressly supporting the Government’s full proscription of Hizballah in its entirety as a terrorist organisation. Following Sir Keir Starmer’s election as Leader of the Labour Party, Mr Thomas-Symonds has clarified that he backs both the adoption of the Definition by the Party and the proscription of Hizballah by the Government.

He also campaigned for and congratulated the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, albeit that he did condemn her deeply problematic social media activity.

Mr Thomas-Symonds has previously tweeted in support of the Holocaust Educational Trust, about participating in Holocaust Memorial Day, and in response to the antisemitic Pittsburgh attack in the United States.

Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Rachel Reeves has been consistently critical of antisemitism in the Labour Party. In 2016 she spoke out against antisemitism in the Oxford University Labour Club and Israel Apartheid Week, as well as in Labour more generally, calling it a “growing issue”.

Ms Reeves also condemned threats against Luciana Berger, celebrated the reselection of Dame Margaret Hodge, both widely believed to have been targeted because they are Jewish women, signed a letter calling on Jeremy Corbyn to take action against the disgraced then-MP Chris Williamson, and joined Labour’s Jewish affiliate in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Following the 2019 General Election, Ms Reeves wrote to Labour’s Secretary-General, Jenny Formby, urging the expulsion of a member making “blatantly anti-semitic claims” on social media, and wrote to Ms Formby again to say that members accused of antisemitism should not vote in the Party’s leadership primary.

She also criticised deputy leadership candidates who did not make pledges to implement reforms within the Party to deal with antisemitism.

David Lammy, Shadow Justice Secretary

David Lammy was calling out antisemitism in the Labour Party already in 2017, and since then he attended a rally against Labour antisemitism and was threatened with deselection for doing so. He also supported the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party and defended it; condemned Jeremy Corbyn’s comments about “Zionists” and “English irony”; backed a letter to Mr Corbyn about ousting the disgraced then-MP Chris Williamson; and condemned the routine dismissals of antisemitism as “smears” (although oddly did it by retweeting Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, who had made such claims).

However, Mr Lammy also asked a Jewish caller to his radio show if he was putting personal concerns about antisemitism over the needs of the country (in a discussion about a ‘no-deal Brexit’) and became frustrated with a reporter for asking about antisemitism at Labour Live. Mr Lammy also backed Labour parliamentary candidate Ali Milani, who has made and apologised for antisemitic statements and called for Israel’s destruction.

Mr Lammy expressed his satisfaction that all Labour leadership candidates had pledged to address antisemitism in the Party, saying: “Tackling antisemitism must be the first priority of the next leader. No excuses.”

Most recently, he opposed an amendment in his local Constituency Labour Party to remove a clause in a motion that stated that the branch should adopt “a zero tolerance position” on antisemitism.

John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary

John Healey served on Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench as Shadow Housing Secretary.

In 2018, Mr Healey defended Mr Corbyn’s handling of Labour’s antisemitism crisis, claiming that matters had improved, but in 2019 he conceded that “it is also clear that what is being done is not fast enough, it’s not tough enough, and I would like to see, to be honest, whether we could move to a position where we can suspend first then investigate such cases.”

He went on, however, to campaign for the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.

Before the 2019 General Election, Mr Healey apologised to the Jewish community, but reiterated his view that the disciplinary process was improving.

Ed Miliband, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Secretary

Ed Miliband was Mr Corbyn’s predecessor as Leader of the Labour Party, and arguably it was during his term that some of the changes in the relationship between Labour and the Jewish community occured.

Although Mr Miliband made some positive interventions on the issue of antisemitism in the Party – for example tweeting against Ken Livingstone (of whom, however, he had previously said in 2012 “He doesn’t have a prejudiced bone in his body”), in support of Luciana Berger, and in condemnation of Labout’s inaction on Chris Williamson – observers were bemused at his apparent indifference to the Party’s antisemitism crisis, despite his previous references to being the son of Holocaust refugees.

He made clear that he would not follow Ms Berger in leaving Labour because he believed that Labour was a force for good in society and it was preferable to remain in the Party and work for zero tolerance of antisemitism, but he then went on to campaign for the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.

Emily Thornberry, Shadow International Trade Secretary

Emily Thornberry served as Shadow Foreign Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet and was at the forefront of the campaign to make him Prime Minister. She has consistently defended Mr Corbyn against charges of antisemitism. She has insisted that “there isn’t a racist or antisemitic bone in Jeremy’s body”, ludicrously opining that the reason that he was failing to act on antisemitism was because he was so upset at being called an antisemite himself, and has claimed that the Chief Rabbi was “wrong” to suggest that Mr Corbyn is an antisemite. At a 2020 Holocaust Memorial Day event, Ms Thornberry praised Mr Corbyn for “always calling out those people who play the race card”.

In 2017, Ms Thornberry addressed the collapse of relations between Britain’s Jews and the Labour Party over its antisemitism crisis by saying: “There is clearly a lot of work to be done between the Labour Party and the British Jewish community. And I am prepared to do whatever it takes in order to be able to open channels again and to see if we can sort this out.” She added, however, that: “We need a bit of movement on both sides.”

In 2018, Ms Thornberry listened quietly as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claimed at a conference that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves through their “social behaviour, [charging] interest, and financial matters.” He also cited a theory often used by antisemites that modern-day Jews are in fact imposters from “Khazaria”. Rather than challenge him, Ms Thornberry posted on Facebook that it had been her “privilege” to represent the Labour Party at the conference. Only after being called out did she issue a statement criticising his “antisemitic remarks about the history of the Jewish community in Europe which were not just grossly offensive, but utterly ignorant”. In 2018, Ms Thornberry also accused the Israel Defence Forces of deliberately using enhanced ammunition designed for hunters to “do maximum internal damage to the animal”, a claim reminiscent of the blood libel.

During her unsuccessful campaign to lead the Labour Party, Ms Thornberry, whose husband’s family is Jewish, said that the Jewish community “wrongly” believed that a Labour government would have made them unsafe, but expressed her “disgust” that that is how Jews were made to feel by the Party. She later noted how a Jewish member of her staff reported that she could not go to family weddings and other occasions and publicise that she works for Labour, out of shame.

Despite her insistence during the Labour leadership campaign that tackling antisemitism is the “most urgent and immediate priority,” Ms Thornberry was nonetheless happy to meet with Alana Bates, the former local Labour candidate who described claims of antisemitism in Labour as “manipulative smears” and recorded a song with her band that called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

However, in 2017 Ms Thornberry described the BDS movement to boycott Israel, the tactics of which an overwhelming majority of Jews find intimidating, as “bigotry”, saying that the belief “that opposition to the policies of an individual government can ever justify a hatred of the nation and its people, or a boycott of its products, its culture or its academics, or a denial of its right to defend itself from military assault and terror attacks” is “bigotry against the Israeli nation” and that is “has never been justified and it never will be.”

In 2019, Ms Thornberry bucked pressure and called for the EHRC to proceed with its investigation into institutional antisemitic discrimination and victimisation within the Labour Party, which was launched following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

In 2020 during the leadership campaign, Ms Thornberry claimed that she made interventions in Shadow Cabinet meetings and other forums on the issue of antisemitism and she supported the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party while some of her colleagues did not. She also said that when she tried to raise the issue of antisemitism more generally she was told by Party superiors that it “wasn’t my business” and was told to stick to her foreign policy brief.

She agreed with Sir Keir Starmer that the litmus test for whether Labour had dealt with antisemitism would be whether Jewish former MPs like Dame Louise Ellman felt that they could return to the Party.

Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary

Jonathan Reynolds served as Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury for most of Jeremy Corbyn’s term as Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Reynolds wrote a piece in 2016 urging Jews to stay in Labour in 2016, and also claimed that both Mr Corbyn and his leadership rival Owen Smith wanted to deal with antisemitism in the Party.

He attended a rally of the Jewish community against antisemitism in the Labour Party and called for the suspension of Labour’s disciplinary chief Christine Shawcroft after she reportedly opposed the suspension from the Labour party of a Holocaust denier. However, he also campaigned for Ruth George, an MP with a problematic record, in her unsuccessful bid to remain in Parliament.

Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State of Health and Social Care

Jonathan Ashworth is set to remain in the same post that he held in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.

Mr Ashworth has called for zero-tolerance and expulsions in connection with Labour antisemitism, has apologised when Mr Corbyn has been criticised for failing to act, and has conceded that Labour needed to go further and faster. But he has also clearly tried to tread a line between speaking up against antisemitism and publicly supporting Mr Corbyn.

He supported the Party’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, was publicly supportive of Luciana Berger early on when she was targeted for being a Jewish woman MP, but he relaxed his support once she had left Labour.

He did, however, pay tribute to Ian Austin, who also left Labour over antisemitism, and said that he had proposed reforms to address the antisemitism crisis.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Education Secretary

Rebecca Long-Bailey served as Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and was an avid supporter of his ideology and leadership, which she recently rated “ten out of ten”.

Despite representing a constituency — Salford and Eccles — with a Jewish population, Ms Long-Bailey reportedly showed little awareness of issues important to the community in her first few months in office. This lack of awareness apparently spread to the media as well, as Ms Long-Bailey gave an interview to the controversial far-left website, The Canary, subsequently explaining that she was “not aware of concerns about The Canary at the time” of the interview. Lord Mann, the Government’s independent advisor on antisemitism, has since announced that he will be investigating The Canary and other far-left websites in relation to the rise in antisemitism.

When it was revealed that Mr Corbyn had written a gushing foreword to a reissue of J.A. Hobson’s 1902 work, Imperialism: A Study, in which the author cast the blame for great wars on the Rothschild family, which was once predominantly Jewish, and their supposed control of the media — Mr Corbyn described the book as “correct and prescient” — Ms Long-Bailey defended him.

Ms Long-Bailey was also said to have opposed the adoption by the Labour Party of the International Definition of Antisemitism, opting instead to back the infamous “code” on antisemitism that was floated by Party insiders as an alternative to the Definition in order to dilute it. She later claimed that the Jewish community was meant to be consulted on the code but when it transpired that it had not been, she no longer supported it, although that claim has been met with scepticism.

During her failed bid for the leadership of the Party, Ms Long-Bailey claimed that she spoke out on antisemitism in internal Labour meetings over the past few years and that if she were elected leader she would work “very hard and very robustly” to tackle antisemitism in the Party. She added that “I wasn’t happy with the way our process was being run.” Such comments echo those of her most prominent backer, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, whose persistent references to “process” during the General Election represented an effort to deflect attention from the reality that the Party was home to large numbers of antisemites and an antisemitic leadership. In any event, Ms Long-Bailey’s claim to have spoken out on antisemitism behind the scenes has been disputed.

Indeed, Ms Long-Bailey was accused by a fellow MP of being “partly responsible for the failure of Labour to stem the tide of antisemitism within its ranks.” The MP went on to say: “How she can now claim to be concerned about an issue that cost us the election — it’s staggering hypocrisy.”

Jo Stevens, Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary

Jo Stevens served briefly as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.

As a backbench MP, she called for the suspension of the disgraced then-MP Chris Williamson, and also called for Ken Livingstone’s expulsion tweeting: “Suspension never appropriate sanction where there’s no apology nor a promise not to repeat remarks. NCC [National Constitutional Committee] decision right. Sanction wrong.”

However, although Ms Stevens agreed that Labour needed to tackle antisemitism, she described the resignation from the Party by Luciana Berger and others over antisemitism the day after Labour MP Paul Flynn’s death as “a bit disrespectful”.

Ms Stevens was also supportive of the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity, and has tweeted in support of Hugh Lanning of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which we have found to be riddled with bigotry.

Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Bridget Phillipson has recently disclosed that  she felt compromised by staying in the Party despite antisemitism.

In 2016, she reportedly told Jeremy Corbyn to resign at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, although this was more likely to have been over Brexit than antisemitism.

In 2018, Ms Phillipson called for action on antisemitism, and in 2019 she said that Labour’s antisemitism problem needed intervention from the top and that another investigation by a lawyer – in this case Lord Falconer – would not “get us anywhere” because “the problems are not procedural, or legal. They are political.” In particular, she noted that at least one figure on the Party’s ruling National Executive Committee simply did not belong there and that no amount of antisemitism training would resolve that.

Ms Phillipson said that she was “sad” to see Luciana Berger and other colleagues resign from Labour over antisemitism but insisted that she herself would not leave the Party.

Luke Pollard, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary

Luke Pollard served as Shadow Minister for Flooding & Coastal Communities under Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Pollard has posted numerous tweets about the need to take action on antisemitism, including supporting the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party; criticising Ken Livingstone and calling for his expulsion; supporting a demonstration by the Jewish community against Labour antisemitism; supporting Labour’s Jewish affiliate; and supporting Sir Keir Starmer’s prioritisation of tackling antisemitism during his leadership campaign.

Mr Pollard has also tweeted his support for Mr Corbyn’s periodic statements on antisemitism.

Mr Pollard opposed the readmission of the disgraced then-MP Chris Williamson, but he did campaign for the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.

Steve Reed, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary

Steve Reed served in junior shadow ministerial roles under Jeremy Corbyn but has tweeted in support of Labour’s Jewish affiliate and of calls for action on antisemitism, including the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party. Mr Reed also supported the launch of the EHRC’s investigation into Labour antisemitism, which was launched following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

On the victory of the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes in the Peterborough by-election in 2019, Mr Reed took a more nuanced position than some of his colleagues who had campaigned for her, noting only that he was pleased that the Brexit Party had been defeated.

During the recent Labour leadership primary, Mr Reed supported the candidates’ declarations that they consider themselves to be ZIonists and welcomed Sir Keir Starmer’s apology to the Jewish community on behalf of the Labour Party following his election as Leader.

Thangam Debbonaire, Shadow Housing Secretary

Thangam Debbonaire has posted numerous tweets supportive of the Jewish community and against antisemitism in Labour, including insisting that the Party work with the EHRC on its investigation into Labour antisemitism, which was launched following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Ms Debbonaire attended a rally against antisemitism in the Labour Party and was heckled by her local Constituency Labour Party for doing so, causing her to bravely storm out of the meeting in protest. She also claims to have helped to remove an antisemitic mural from Bristol’s city centre.

She has tweeted in support of the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party and defended it against critics.

Ms Debbonaire apparently joined Labour’s Jewish affiliate in solidarity with the Jewish community, and, when asked why she would not quit Labour in protest over anti-Jewish racism, she replied that she refused to cede the Party to antisemitism.

Jim McMahon, Shadow Transport Secretary

Jim McMahon served as Shadow Minister of State for Local Government under Jeremy Corbyn.

He wrote to the Co-operative Party’s National Executive Committee to recommend the adoption of proposals made by Jewish organisations to tackle antisemitism in Labour.

He also questioned the circumstances in which Shami Chakrabarti received a peerage following her whitewash report into antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Preet Kaur Gill, Shadow International Development Secretary

Preet Kaur Gill served as Shadow Minister for International Development under Jeremy Corbyn.

Ms Kaur Gill attended a rally against antisemitism in the Labour Party and chaired a meeting on antisemitism with prominent Jewish organisations and personalities, along with the Crown Prosecution Service. She went on, however, to congratulate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.

In hindsight, she recognised that antisemitism was an issue in the General Election, but she was less robust prior to the election, deflecting criticism of Labour by tweeting that there is antisemitism and racism in other political parties too.

Louise Haigh, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary (interim)

Louise Haigh served as a Shadow Minister under Jeremy Corbyn in various posts.

Ms Haigh has called for more action on antisemitism and met with Jewish organisations and personalities to discuss contemporary manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred.

She also expressed solidarity with Luciana Berger and supported the referral of the disgraced then-MP Chris Williamson to Labour’s National Constitutional Committee.

However, her involvement in the Peterborough by-election on behalf of Labour’s candidate, Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity (Ms Haigh said that Ms Forbes had “mistakenly engaged in” antisemitic tweets), while claiming that she cared about antisemitism was branded “the very definition of hypocrisy”.

Ms Haigh said that calling Israel an apartheid state is antisemitic but called for sanctions to be imposed against it.

Ian Murray, Shadow Scotland Secretary

Ian Murray criticised Jeremy Corbyn for his inaction over deselection threats against the Jewish MP, Luciana Berger; called for the then-MP Chris Williamson to be suspended; and condemned Labour’s treatment of the Panorama whistleblowers, who helped to expose the depth of the Party’s institutional antisemitism.

During his recent bid to become Labour’s Deputy Leader, Mr Murray made tackling antisemitism a key part of his campaign. He said that Labour could no longer bury its head in the sand, that “I want antisemitism cases on my desk every week as Deputy Leader”, and that he wished to work with the Jewish community. He further tweeted that he would take “personal responsibility for rooting out this cancer” and pledged: “if it’s not done under my watch I’ll resign. I’m so angry about this. Everyone saying they will deal with it – well what have they been doing over the past three-and-a-half years?”

Nia Griffith, Shadow Wales Secretary

Nia Griffith served for several years as Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Defence Secretary.

She also congratulated Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.

However, Ms Griffith also supported a rally by the Jewish community against antisemitism in the Labour Party (although she did say that what was needed was “deeds not words” but then continued to sit inertly in the Shadow Cabinet); called for the suspension of the then-MP Chris Williamson; called for stronger sanction against Ken Livingstone; supported Dame Margaret Hodge; said that Labour was at a crisis point over the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism; spoke up for an activist who was receiving abuse online for calling out antisemitism in the Labour Party; and urged Labour’s leadership to apologise to the Jewish community after the courageous intervention by the Chief Rabbi.

Marsha De Cordova, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary

Marsha De Cordova served as Shadow Minister for Diasbled People under Jeremy Corbyn.

Ms De Cordova does not appear to have been particularly engaged on the issue of antisemitism in the Labour Party, other than tweeting an article by Mr Corbyn pledging to act.

She has, however, engaged with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which we have found to be riddled with bigotry.

Andy McDonald, Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Secretary

Andy McDonald served as Shadow Transport Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.

A particularly fervent member of Labour Friends of Palestine, Mr McDonald has falsely accused Israel of wilful massacre of unarmed civilians and has also been forced to deny making a comparison between Israel and the Nazi regime in a remark defending his advisor, Karl Hansen, who had described Israel as an apartheid state. Mr Hansen had also accused the Jewish television personality and anti-extremism campaigner, Rachel Riley, of smearing political opponents as antisemites.

Mr McDonald defended Mr Corbyn over the infamous antisemitic mural in Tower Hamlets and falsely claimed that the Party was dealing with antisemitism. He also retweeted a dubious story from Rachael Swindon, the Twitter account of the controversial Labour activist Rachael Cousins, who has reportedly accused a Jewish charity of being “Conservative backers” and called on it to “condemn all atrocities by the Israeli military in the West Bank”, thus holding Jews collectively responsible for perceived injustices committed by Israel.

Mr McDonald said that he ‘respectfully disagreed’ with the Chief Rabbi’s criticism of Labour’s handling of antisemitism and tweeted after the General Election that “I have never experienced a General Election when a good and decent, principled man has been so vilified and demonised.”

Recently, Mr McDonald became one of the very last sitting MPs to sign up to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Rosena Allin-Khan, Shadow Minister for Mental Health

Rosena Allin-Khan served as Shadow Minister for Sport under Jeremy Corbyn.

Ms Allin-Khan has written about being a victim of antisemitic abuse, which she received after engaging with Israeli diplomats in the UK, even though she met them to criticise Israeli Government policy. She also posted a strange series of tweets on the issue.

In June 2019 she called for an independent disciplinary process to deal with antisemitism cases.

In her campaign to become Labour’s Deputy Leader, she made tackling antisemitism a priority, pledging to act and to implement the recommendations of the EHRC when it concludes its investigation into Labour antisemitism, which was launched following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Cat Smith, Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Engagement

Cat Smith served as Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons under Jeremy Corbyn.

In 2016, Ms Smith called out some antisemitism on Twitter directly.

She has recognised that there is antisemitism in Labour and has encouraged her Twitter followers to learn about antisemitism by sharing Labour’s webpage on the subject

Ms Smith has also said: “I have a Jewish family, my husband is Jewish and my child is Jewish. There are people in the Labour Party that hold antisemitic views and express them and the party has not been able to react fast enough to expel these people.” Ms Smith’s husband works for the Labour Party as its Head of Digital Organising and is a former head of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which we have found to be riddled with bigotry.

Lord Charlie Falconer, Shadow Attorney General

Lord Falconer has repeatedly stated how great a problem antisemitism is in the Labour Party, tweeting numerous times in despair about Labour’s antisemitism crisis and saying that there are thousands of antisemites in the Party.

He even agreed, at the invitation of Labour headquarters, to lead yet another internal inquiry into antisemitism in the Party, years after the whitewash inquiry conducted by Baroness Chakrabarti, but he withdrew after the EHRC launched its investigation, following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

He eventually came around to the importance of an independent disciplinary process in 2019, having earlier opposed it, calling it “inevitable and necessary”.

Dame Margaret Hodge claimed that Lord Falconer bombarded her with calls encouraging her to apologise when she was ludicrously under investigation by the Party for calling out Jeremy Corbyn’s role in Labour’s antisemitism crisis. Lord Falconer insisted that he was doing so out of friendship with Dame Margaret and apologised “that she thought I pressed too hard.”

Valerie Vaz, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Valerie Vaz remains as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, having served in that role under Jeremy Corbyn.

Ms Vaz appears to have had almost nothing to say on Labour’s descent into institutional racism, with the exception of a 2018 apology to the Jewish community where she said that “I think it’s really regrettable that it has got this bad and I would want to apologise to the Jewish community for any offence that has been caused.”

However, in an earlier interview that day with BBC Radio 4, Ms Vaz accidentally praised antisemitism repeatedly. Asked to defend Mr Corbyn, she said: “He’s been steeped in antisemitism, anti-racism throughout his time. Basically the Jewish community does have roots in our Party. They have played a prominent role. We must make sure we continue to show people we are an antisemitic and anti-racist Party.”

While this might be regarded as an unfortunate slip, an alternative interpretation is that Ms Vaz has taken such little interest in how anti-Jewish racism captured her Party that she did not even properly understand what such racism is called.

Afzal Khan, Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons

Afzal Khan served as Shadow Minister of State for Immigration under Jeremy Corbyn.

In 2014, whilst serving as an MEP, Mr Khan tweeted a link to an article entitled, “The Israeli Government are acting like Nazi’s [sic] in Gaza.” Mr Khan’s use of the Nazi slur, in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism, came despite his prominence in interfaith dialogue work. He is co-founder of the Muslim-Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester and was awarded a CBE for his community and interfaith work in 2008. However, the Labour Party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership declined to investigate or discipline Khan when a complaint was later submitted.

In 2015, Mr Khan reportedly shared a video on Facebook (apparently originally posted by the virulently antisemitic Philip E. Taylor), the prominent text beneath which referred to “Israel-British-Swiss-Rothschilds crime syndicate” and “mass murdering Rothschilds Israeli mafia criminal liars”. When the post was uncovered in 2019, Mr Khan said that he was “mortified” for “accidentally” sharing the image, but he did not remove it for a further six months after apologising and only did so when a journalist asked why it was still on his page. Mr Khan also later disputed whether the post was antisemitic at all.

Regarding Ken Livingstone, Mr Khan condemned comments by the disgraced former Mayor of London but failed to agree that Mr Livingstone should have been expelled from the Labour Party.

In 2018, Mr Khan attended a rally against antisemitism but downplayed the fact that the demonstration’s focus was antisemitism in his Party, saying: “Yesterday I attended the ‘Say No to Antisemitism Rally’ to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. The Labour Party and its leadership are and always have been anti-racist. We will always stand together to fight any form of racism in our Party or society.”

Mr Khan attended antisemitism training at his Constituency Labour Party delivered by Labour’s Jewish affiliate.

Lord Thomas McAvoy, Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords

Lord McAvoy will continue in his role as Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords, in which position he also served under Jeremy Corbyn.

Lord McAvoy did not join other peers in an advertisement that they took out which said that Mr Corbyn had “failed the test of leadership” over antisemitism, but he, along with Baroness Smith and others, did write directly to Mr Corbyn warning of the “cancer” of antisemitism and offering to help to set up an independent complaints process.

Nick Brown, Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons

Nick Brown, who also served as Shadow Chief Whip under Jeremy Corbyn, has had little to say on Labour’s antisemitism crisis.

In one instance in 2018, he acknowledged that there was “clearly an issue to be dealt with”, but he took the Party line in stressing that Labour was committed to doing so, even though it clearly was not.

In 2019 he wrote to the then-MP Chris Williamson urging him to cancel a showing of the film WitchHunt that he was organising in Parliament.

Baroness Angela Smith, Shadow Leader of the Lords

Baroness Smith served as Shadow Leader of the House of Lords under Jeremy Corbyn and will continue in her role under Sir Keir Starmer.

Baroness Smith supported Dame Margaret Hodge and also backed the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party.

She also apparently assisted Lord Levy in reporting an antisemitic e-mail that he had received to Mr Corbyn, who did not respond.

Baroness Smith did not join other peers in an advertisement that they took out which said that Mr Corbyn had “failed the test of leadership” over antisemitism, but she, along with Lord McAvoy and others, did write directly to Mr Corbyn warning of the “cancer” of antisemitism and offering to help to set up independent complaints process.

Comment and conclusion

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism said, “This is the first research into the records of each member of the new Shadow Cabinet with regard to antisemitism.

“Our painstaking, fully-evidenced research shows that Sir Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet includes figures who have fought a rearguard action for years against anti-Jewish prejudice in Labour, but it also contains parliamentarians who have contributed to or enabled that racism.

“The research is also a depressing reminder of just how little so many Labour MPs said about antisemitism over several years – and, moreover, how much less they actually did – even as it infested their once fiercely anti-racist Party. Every one of them campaigned last year for an antisemite to become Prime Minister.

“The makeup of the Shadow Cabinet illustrates that Jeremy Corbyn’s poisonous legacy of antisemitism has so permeated the Labour Party that there are too few untainted figures amongst its parliamentarians to fill even these few coveted posts.

“Some of Sir Keir’s appointments to his Shadow Cabinet are inconsistent with his pledge to tear antisemitism out of the Labour Party ‘by its roots’. This research shows just how deep those roots go and how much they have rotted his Party, and no amount of pruning can disguise how much work lies ahead.

“Our research suggests that Sir Keir may already be making factional compromises instead of showing zero tolerance. He will find his honeymoon short-lived if he delays the hard decisions and actions that are necessary.”

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right. It also showed that prior to last year’s General Election, 42% of British Jews had considered leaving the UK, of which 85% cited antisemitism in politics, and close to two thirds of British Jews believed that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Labour’s mammoth report detailing anti-Corbyn conspiracy at Party’s HQ is “last ditch attempt to discredit antisemitism allegations” and must be sent to EHRC

Sky News has reported that the Labour Party spent the last month of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership conducting a full-scale review into how the Party handled antisemitism complaints during his tenure.

The report, which is titled ‘The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 – 2019’ and has not been made public, says that its “findings prove the scale of the problem, and could help end the denialism amongst some part of the Party membership,” but insists that there was “no evidence” of antisemitism complaints being treated differently to other forms of complaint, or of “antisemitic intent” among current or former staff.

Rather, the report – which is apparently the product of a review of 10,000 separate emails and thousands of private WhatsApp communications between former senior party officials – concludes that there was a lack of “robust processes, systems, training, education and effective line management” and, most controversially, that there is “abundant evidence of a hyper-factional atmosphere prevailing in Party HQ” towards Mr Corbyn which “affected the expeditious and resolute handling of disciplinary complaints.”

The report reserves particular criticism for the former Party officials who turned whistleblowers in last year’s devastating Panorama expose of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Indeed the intent of the report was apparently to give the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reason to “question the validity of the personal testimonies” provided by the whistleblowers.

The EHRC launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party on 28th May 2019 following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

However, Labour’s lawyers have reportedly advised the Party against submitting the document, and the Party, which has a new leader, is now insisting that it was never intended to be submitted.

The claims of factionalism within the Party’s HQ and the suggestion that antisemitism complaints were impeded by staffers’ motivation to undermine Mr Corbyn’s leadership have been denied by the former staffers and whistleblowers, who responded to similar defences by the Party during the Panorama program by suing Labour.

Campaign Against Antisemitism believes that the very existence of the report illustrates the lengths to which the Party’s apparatus under Mr Corbyn’s leadership went to try to deflect attention from the antisemitism crisis and exonerate itself, instead of actually addressing the crisis and expelling antisemites from the Party. While the report apparently concedes the scale of Labour antisemitism, nevertheless its effect is to deny the allegations by portraying them as a product of factionalism in the Party or a smear designed to damage the leadership.

In a statement, a spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “In the dying days of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party appears to have invested in a desperate last-ditch attempt to deflect and discredit allegations of antisemitism. Rather than properly dealing with cases of antisemitism and the culture of anti-Jewish racism that prevailed during Mr Corbyn’s tenure, the Party has instead busied itself trawling through 10,000 of its own officials’ e-mails and WhatsApp messages in an attempt to imagine a vast anti-Corbyn conspiracy and to continue its effort to smear whistleblowers.

“It is a disgrace that the 450,000-word report, which itself claims to ‘prove the scale’ of antisemitism in the Party and serves as an exhibit of the Party’s failure to address the crisis, is being kept secret. Sir Keir Starmer has the report and should ensure that it is immediately provided to us and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, so that it can be considered as part of the Commission’s statutory investigation in which we are the complainant.”

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Online backlash against new Labour leader takes aim at the Jews

Members of at least one Facebook group backing losing candidates in Labour’s leadership and deputy leadership primaries have vented their frustration regarding the results towards a traditional scapegoat.

Numerous deeply troubling messages on the group, called “Jeremy Corbyn Group supports Richard Burgon for Deputy Leader”, which has almost 23,000 members, have been uncovered by activist Gillian Lazarus.

The messages include statements that the UK is now a “one party state run by the Jews”; that “there is no antisemitism in Labour”; that Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour leader, is “just another Israeli lickspittle”; and “when is anyone ever going to stand up to these people?”, in reference to Campaign Against Antisemitism, because it promotes the widespread adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Members of the group have previously targeted the Chief Rabbi with their ire.

Mr Burgon, an unsuccessful candidate for the deputy leadership of the Party and until recently a Labour frontbencher, does not have any administrative involvement in the Facebook group, although he also has his own very troubling record in his relationship with the Jewish community.

There was a similar backlash against the Jews among some disappointed supporters of Labour’s hard left following the General Election.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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An antisemite is no longer running Labour, but now justice must be done for Britain’s Jews

This morning, the Labour Party started the process of turning the page on the era of Jeremy Corbyn, an antisemite who the vast majority of British Jews regarded specifically as a threat to them.

However, retrieving the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party from the grip of institutional antisemitism is not as simple as replacing its antisemitic erstwhile leader.

Sir Keir Starmer MP, the accomplished Queen’s Counsel and former Director of Public Prosecutions, faces a long-term campaign if he is serious about the very welcome promise he made in his victory speech to seek out antisemitism and “tear out this poison by its roots”, for its roots grew extensively under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, who Sir Keir called his “friend” in his speech.

This is not about politics; it is about justice.

We established Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2014 in response to surging antisemitic crime on campuses, online and on the streets. We never expected to find ourselves leading a media campaign to expose the antisemitic leader of a major political party, or as the complainant in a full statutory investigation into a political party by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, with teams of researchers providing evidence to lawyers for our extensive legal submissions.

At our rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice in 2014, the Chief Rabbi quoted the Torah’s exhortation: “Justice, justice, you shall pursue”. It has been Campaign Against Antisemitism’s motto ever since. Even though we have published ample information on antisemites in the Labour Party, including on Jeremy Corbyn himself, and submitted repeated disciplinary complaints, there has been little justice.

Instead, many who should have stood up for justice, including Sir Keir, instead stood by Mr Corbyn. Some offered words of opposition, but with a number of extremely selfless exceptions, their words were hollow.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer polling released last year, which was designed and analysed by King’s College London, showed quite what Mr Corbyn and his acolytes had achieved: huge swathes of British Jews were considering leaving the country over antisemitism in politics, and the vast majority considered the Labour Party to be rife with antisemitism and Jeremy Corbyn to personally pose a threat. Polling by YouGov commissioned for the study showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Despite the Jewish community doing everything it conceivably could to express its alarm and to try to stop the antisemitic rot within Labour, on December 12th 2019, Britain’s Jews held their breath wondering whether the next Prime Minister would be the antisemitic Mr Corbyn. In the end, it was not the Labour membership or its officers who rejected Mr Corbyn, it was the British public. Campaign Against Antisemitism has never supported a political party and it never will, but as voters made their decisions, polling released in the days after the election showed that millions of British voters made their choice partly on the basis of rejecting antisemitism.

Never again should a minority be put in such fear by a political party in this country.

The people who did this must now face justice, and political expedience must no longer stand in the way.

As the new leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir must disentangle the corruption that allowed antisemitism to be institutionalised in his Party. Those who committed antisemitic acts, those who interfered in disciplinary processes to protect them, and those who dismissed Jewish fears as being part of an orchestrated smear campaign must all be made to answer for their actions.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be an ally to anybody seeking justice within Labour, and we will hold Labour to account if it fails, using the forthcoming report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission that we have worked so hard to bring about.

It remains to be seen how Sir Keir will perform. His victory speech was welcome and promising, but his record during Mr Corbyn’s leadership was extremely disappointing.

Sir Keir has served on Mr Corbyn’s frontbench in the influential position of Shadow Brexit Secretary and has been a vocal advocate of Mr Corbyn’s leadership. He has insisted, contrary to all the evidence, that Labour is not institutionally antisemitic (in an interview, incidentally, in which he conceded that denying Labour antisemitism was itself part of the problem). He has also claimed that Mr Corbyn is not particularly to blame for the antisemitism crisis that has engulfed their Party, but rather that there is collective responsibility, thus by his own admission implicating himself.

When Mr Corbyn’s defence of the antisemitic mural in East London came to light, Sir Keir declined to condemn the Labour leader, advising instead that Mr Corbyn “had given his explanation”. In case there was any doubt as to Sir Keir’s commitment to Mr Corbyn’s leadership of Labour and his effort to become Prime Minister, during the election campaign, Sir Keir reiterated that he was “100% behind Jeremy Corbyn”.

The solutions proposed by Sir Keir offer a similar agenda to his competitors for the leadership, including resolving cases swiftly and under a fixed timetable through an independent disciplinary process; preventing the readmission of prominent offenders and suspend those who supported or campaigned for them; implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recommendations in full; relating to the Jewish community only through genuine mainstream organisations; and engaging Labour’s Jewish affiliate to provide antisemitism training.

Additionally, Sir Keir has proposed scrapping Labour’s National Constitutional Committee – the Party’s main disciplinary body — in favour of the new independent disciplinary process. He has also called for an end to the imposition of parliamentary candidates by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, a process that was blamed for numerous worrying candidacies at the previous General Election.

Mr Corbyn’s toxic legacy is likely to hamper reforms. For example, in the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse.

If Sir Keir takes on antisemitism within Labour, he will find an ally in Campaign Against Antisemitism. We will provide evidence and expertise to help to return British politics to a time when antisemitism in public life was an appalling exception, not commonplace. If Sir Keir fails to pursue justice for British Jews, we will hold the Labour Party to account using the forthcoming report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

We would like to take this moment to thank everyone who has helped Campaign Against Antisemitism to shine a spotlight on antisemitism in the Labour Party, from the thousands who have attended our rallies in Parliament Square and outside Labour headquarters to the many tens of thousands who signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite who is unfit to hold a position of power, to the brave (now former) Labour members who helped provide evidence, to the journalists who worked with us to expose Jew-hatred, to the lawyers who helped us to make the case over the course of many months to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, to the many volunteers of Campaign Against Antisemitism of all faiths who have worked without public praise and plenty of sacrifice to produce hundreds of case files across all political parties, to those who have donated what they could to help us to right the wrong done to Britain’s Jews. The Jewish community owes a great deal to the decency of those who saw antisemitism and stood up to it in whatever way they could. Our work to repair British politics continues, and we look forward to the day when politics is free of this ancient bigotry.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “As the new leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir has no time to lose in making good on his pledge to seek out antisemitism and ‘tear out this poison by its roots’ and rebuild relations with the Jewish community. As a Queen’s Counsel and former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir knows that this is not a matter of politics but of justice, and justice requires an impartial process of inquiry with sanctions for offenders. This must start with addressing our outstanding complaints against Jeremy Corbyn and disciplining him in order to send a message that anti-Jewish racism no longer has a home in the Labour Party.”

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CAA’s message to new Labour leader: disciplining Jeremy Corbyn is your litmus test

The new leader of the Labour Party will commence his or her term in office during the worst health crisis in living memory, but that must not delay dealing with another priority, addressing the Party’s need for internal reforms, starting with unravelling its institutional antisemitism.

On the campaign trail, the contenders have often spoken of the importance of a “litmus test” to evidence whether antisemitism is being taken seriously. Naturally, the recommendations of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which will come in due course, must be implemented in full. But the real litmus test is more immediate and it has a name: Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn’s leadership failed electorally, moreover it wrecked Labour’s record as an anti-racist party and led to swathes of the Jewish community questioning their future in Britain. Restoring the Party’s credibility is no small task, particularly if the new leader is from Mr Corbyn’s frontbench, but it must begin with disciplining the outgoing leader.

The EHRC’s full statutory investigation into Labour was launched following a formal referral from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. But what has not been revealed until now is that the original impetus for the investigation was the Labour Party’s repeated refusal to treat seriously a series of complaints that our organisation made against Mr Corbyn.

The process of repairing the Labour Party must begin with the man who did so much to break it by refusing to address its scourge of anti-Jewish racism and at times personally indulging in it.

Mr Corbyn’s offences during his long parliamentary career are documented on our website. They include working to excommunicate Labour’s Jewish affiliate; claiming that Israel exercises an outsized influence in the British media; describing the antisemitic genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Hizbollah as his “friends”; endorsing the comparison of Israel’s policies to those of the Nazis; trying to undermine the centrality of the genocide of the Jews in Holocaust Memorial Day; writing an adulatory foreword to an antisemitic book; defending an Islamist preacher banned from Britain for indulging in the medieval blood libel that accuses Jews of using the blood of non-Jewish children to bake bread; backing the disgraced Reverend Stephen Sizer; defending an obviously antisemitic mural; suggesting that British “Zionists” lack a sense of irony despite having lived here their whole lives; instigating the whitewash Chakrabarti Inquiry and then awarding its author with the peerage that he promised never to bestow on anyone; describing The Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland’s motives in raising the matter of Labour antisemitism as “disgusting subliminal nastiness”; and directly interfering in numerous disciplinary cases on behalf of the offending Labour members while standing by (at best) while Jewish women MPs were hounded out of his Parliamentary Party.

To top it off, Mr Corbyn was opposed to the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party. He may have been motivated in part by the recognition that allowing the adoption to proceed might highlight his own multiple breaches of the definition and require the Party to act against him. Regrettably, even after the Party’s reluctant adoption of the definition, it failed to do so.

But Mr Corbyn’s retirement as Labour leader is only the first step. What matters now is how his successor deals with him. It is not enough simply to ‘draw a line’ and start afresh; the whitewash Chakrabarti report into antisemitism in the Party tried to do that several years ago and the problem only got worse.

It is Mr Corbyn’santi-Jewish legacy that must now be addressed and exorcised from the Party, and that must begin with him. Our review of the records of all Parliamentary candidates in the recent General Election showed not only that Mr Corbyn was himself responsible for a breathtaking fifteen percent of all incidents involving antisemitism, but that Labour’s candidates accounted for a breathtaking 82 percent of all of the incidents across all parties.

Most worryingly, however, was the finding that a third of incidents related to Labour’s new candidates who had never held Parliamentary office before. Far from investigating and eliminating antisemitism, as he deceptively claimed, Mr Corbyn and his allies in the Party’s headquarters and on its ruling bodies have injected more of it into Parliament.

This problem is not confined to the House of Commons: one post-election poll showed that nearly three quarters of Labour members said that the issue of antisemitism in the Party was “invented or wildly exaggerated”, with that denial rising to over 90% among members of the pro-Corbyn Momentum group. Only one in five Labour members agreed that “antisemitism was a real problem” in Labour.

Naturally, the Party’s disciplinary processes must be made independent and its sanctions enhanced – that much is clear. There are plenty of other important measures that the Party should introduce, and we have made those recommendations to the EHRC as part of our recently-concluded legal submissions.

But Mr Corbyn must be made to bear personal responsibility for his central role in cultivating anti-Jewish animus in his Party. This will send a message to other culpable MPs, officials and members that they cannot hide.

The candidates have talked of a litmus test: disciplining Mr Corbyn must be it.

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Disappointment as Boris Johnson praises Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at his last PMQs without reference to the fear he instilled in British Jews

At yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, which was Jeremy Corbyn’s last as leader of the Labour Party, Boris Johnson praised the Leader of the Opposition without referencing his antisemitism and the fear he instilled in British Jews.

The Prime Minister said: “I wish to pay tribute to [Mr Corbyn] for his service to party and country over the past five years in a very difficult job. We may not agree about everything, but no-one could doubt his sincerity or his determination to build a better society.”

It was deeply disappointing that Mr Johnson did not reference the terror felt by British Jews at the prospect of Mr Corbyn becoming Prime Minister, which, according to polls, could have led to half of the Jewish community in the UK fleeing the country.

Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism and former Labour MP Ian Austin, who quit the Party in disgust at the growth of antisemitism under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, summarised the outgoing Labour leader’s legacy as “A party poisoned by racism. Jewish MPs driven out. The EHRC investigation….What a disgrace!”

Mr Austin was referencing the full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party launched on 28th May 2019 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Michael Gove: Jeremy Corbyn wanted to “smuggle into our political conversation antisemitic expressions and antisemitic tropes”

Michael Gove, the Conservative frontbencher, has accused the leader of the Labour Party of trying to “smuggle into our political conversation antisemitic expressions and antisemitic tropes.”

Mr Gove made the remark at a reception in Westminster for the Mainstream UK group co-founded by the former Labour MP and honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, Ian Austin, who quit the Labour Party in disgust at its institutional antisemitism.

Mr Gove, who serves as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, observed, however, that the British people rejected Mr Corbyn’s views and what those “acting in his name had argued for.” Mr Gove praised Mr Austin’s “bravery” and lamented that the term ‘Zionist’ “has come to be used as a term of abuse. We can see the way in which anti-Zionism has mutated, so anti-Zionism has become the new antisemitism.” He noted that “in the past you could be Jewish in the ghetto, or you could be Jewish but had to suffer disability under the law,” and that “more recently, antisemitism has taken a new form. That new form is to say that that expression of Jewish identity…either has to be removed or Israel has to survive on terms set by others.”

He also warned the audience, which included the BBC presenter Andrew Marr, that Mr Corbyn’s retirement as Labour leader did not mean that “toxicity” would not persist in the Party, and also that “in the same way as some choose to stigmatise and vilify the Jewish community, there are others who are equally willing to use stereotypes to vilify other people who are British, who are our friends and neighbours.”

The cabinet minister added: “What we must do when confronted with hatred and prejudice is stand four square against it. Put whatever political boundaries we have to one side.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Lord Mann says Jeremy Corbyn’s inaction led to growth of antisemitism and not enough people are challenging it

Lord Mann has opined that “Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of action as Labour leader led to a growth of antisemitism on the Left,” adding that “there’s also virulent antisemitism on the Right.”

Lord Mann, who serves as the Government’s independent advisor on antisemitism, lamented that “not enough people are challenging antisemitism. We need to be more robust in standing up to it.”

He also noted that antisemitism was becoming the most acceptable form of racism and that society had a responsibility to tackle it. He urged politicians to address the climate in which people “feel confident” to make antisemitic remarks, noting too that it was a constant issue for the electorate during the general election.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life, To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s Chief of Staff Karie Murphy deemed “completely unfit” for peerage, but over allegations of bullying rather than Labour antisemitism

Jeremy Corbyn’s Chief of Staff, Karie Murphy, has been deemed “completely unfit” for a peerage by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which considers appointments to the upper chamber, after Mr Corbyn nominated her. However, the Commission’s conclusion was reportedly based on accusations of bullying rather than Labour antisemitism.

Ms Murphy is accused by staff of presiding over “a divisive and toxic culture” in the Leader of the Opposition’s office, including allegedly “berating” staff.

The bullying accusations are serious, including claims of physical assault.

It is regrettable that Ms Murphy’s leadership role in an institutionally antisemitic party and its campaign to make an antisemite prime minister did not appear to also form a part of the rationale for the recommendation not to award Ms Murphy with a place in the House of Lords. Mr Corbyn’s nomination of Ms Murphy was another insult to the Jewish community.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Unite’s Len McCluskey continues to claim that Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents used antisemitism to undermine him

Len McCluskey, the head of the powerful Unite union, has claimed that antisemitism allegations were used to “undermine” the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Mr McCluskey, who is a major backer of Mr Corbyn, called Mr Corbyn’s critics who supposedly exploited antisemitism to undermine the Labour leader “despicable”. 

He said: “I’m absolutely convinced that there were those individuals who opposed Jeremy Corbyn’s election right from the beginning [and] used the antisemitism issue to undermine him – there is no doubt about that.”

Although he observed that “lots of people were genuinely concerned” and graciously added that “I have no problem with that,” he nevertheless insisted that “there were others who were disingenuous.”

This is not the first time Mr McCluskey has tried to minimise the antisemitism scandal that has engulfed the Labour Party. He has previously claimed that the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis is only a problem due to “right-wing media” supposedly exaggerating the issue; he has accused Jewish organisations of plotting to ensure that the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis is “prolonged and intensified”; and he attacked the Chief Rabbi for calling out Labour antisemitism and the unfitness of its leader for public office.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Emily Thornberry tells Holocaust Memorial Day audience that Jeremy Corbyn “will always call out” racism, after Labour leader appears to back Rebecca Long-Bailey as successor

Labour leadership hopeful Emily Thornberry has praised Jeremy Corbyn for “always calling out those people who play the race card” at a Holocaust Memorial Day event.

Speaking at an event at Islington Assembly Hall to an audience that included fellow local MP Mr Corbyn, Ms Thornberry advised that it was not just the pupils present who needed to learn the lessons of history, but also the “adults, especially the politicians amongst us.”

Mr Corbyn also addressed the ceremony, describing how “the Nazi Party rose to power and how they murdered six million Jewish people along with all the travellers and gypsies they could, along with lesbian and gay people.”

A Holocaust survivor, Hana Kleiner, lamented in Mr Corbyn’s presence “the current rise of antisemitism” and blasted Holocaust denial “in the face of all the documented evidence”.

The Mayor of Islington, Cllr Rakhia Ismail, mentioned the “need to hold politicians to account” over genocides around the world, but suggested that it was “Number 10 (Downing Street) and America or other parts of the world” who were guilty of “supporting blindly” contemporary genocides.

Other politicians were unimpressed with the political speeches. Dame Margaret Hodge MP, said: “If it wasn’t so serious, this would be a joke. I think Emily Thornberry needs to reflect on the reality before she makes statements like that.”

Ian Austin, the former Labour MP who resigned from Labour over antisemitism and is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It’s easy to speak about racism at a Holocaust commemoration.  But their words would have much more weight if the Labour Party had not been poisoned by racism against Jewish people under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. He could start to make amends by booting out the racists and apologising for his responsibility for this scandal before he stands down.”

The event comes after Mr Corbyn appeared to back Rebecca Long-Bailey, long viewed as the “continuity candidate”, for the leadership, describing her as “our candidate for leader” at a political event. Mr Corbyn’s aides suggested that the Party leader had not intended to formally endorse Ms Long-Bailey.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which was equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders in the 2019 general election. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament accounted for 82 percent of all incidents.

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Jeremy Corbyn audaciously refers to “horrors of the past” in hollow comments in Parliament on the Holocaust

Jeremy Corbyn has audaciously referenced the “horrors of the past” in comments in Parliament on the Holocaust that are insulting to the Jewish community.

The Labour leader told MPs: “Next Monday we will be commemorating National Holocaust [Memorial] Day. It’s a time for us all to reflect on the horrors of the past and remind us of the evils of Nazism, genocide, antisemitism and indeed all forms of racism which we must always all be implacably determined to root out wherever it appears.”

The remarks were particularly audacious, given that Mr Corbyn has spent his time in office cultivating antisemitism in the Labour Party — quite the opposite of working to “root it out wherever it appears”.

Moreover, on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010, Mr Corbyn hosted and chaired an antisemitic event that compared Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, in contravention of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

A year later, on Holocaust Memorial Day 2011, John McDonnell, a fellow beckbench MP who would go on to serve as Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr Corbyn himself respectively proposed and seconded an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling for the word “Holocaust” in the name of the day to be replaced with “Genocide”, thereby removing its particular signifiance for Jews.

Given Mr Corbyn’s record and his consistent refusal to address the institutional antisemitism in his Party, much less learn the lessons of the Holocaust more generally, his remarks on “the horrors of the past” is empty and hollow.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which was equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders in the 2019 general election. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament accounted for 82 percent of all incidents.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s nomination of his chief of staff Karie Murphy for a peerage is another insult to the Jewish community

Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to include his controversial chief of staff, Karie Murphy, in his list of nominations for peerages is another insult to the Jewish community by the leader of the Labour Party.

Ms Murphy has been a central figure in the Labour leader’s office, which has presided over the descent of the Party into institutional antisemitism and undermined the Party’s disciplinary processes and investigations into antisemitism. Ms Murphy was instrumental in advocating for a Corbyn-led government, which would pose an existential threat to British Jewry.

Even Labour figures are sceptical of the propriety of appointing such a senior Party figure to the House of Lords while Labour is being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over antisemitism. On 28th May 2019, the EHRC launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Rewarding Ms Murphy and elevating her to a life peerage, thereby guaranteeing her presence on the front line of British politics for years to come, is a malicious act.

It has also been reported that Ms Murphy is to be given additional responsibilities within the Party.

Mr Corbyn has a history of questionable nominations to the House of Lords, including Shami Chakrabarti, who authored a report into antisemitism in the Party that was widely panned as a ‘whitewash’. Mr Corbyn nominated her for a peerage and then appointed her as his Shadow Justice Secretary.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Labour withdraws Ofcom complaint about Panorama expose of Party’s antisemitism

The Labour Party has apparently withdrawn its complaint to Ofcom over the Panorama investigation into antisemitism in the Party, which Labour had claimed was a “one-sided authored polemic”. Ofcom has also dismissed all other bias complaints made over the programme.

In the episode, which was titled “Is Labour Antisemitic?” and televised in July, former Labour Party employees spoke out publicly to reveal Jeremy Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism. The programme explained how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to run Labour’s disciplinary process independently, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides, who were brazen in their efforts to subvert due process.

The Party submitted a 28-page complaint to the BBC, claiming that the programme failed to meet the BBC’s standards, but the BBC decided to back the makers of the episode and rejected the complaint. Labour was then able to make the complaint to Ofcom, which it did, but which it has now allegedly withdrawn.

Additionally, Ofcom has confirmed that it has dismissed all of the other bias complaints it has received over the programme. An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We assessed complaints from viewers who felt that this programme was factually inaccurate and biased. In our view, the programme was duly impartial. As well as highly critical personal testimonies, it included the Labour Party’s response prominently throughout, including in an interview with the Shadow Communities Secretary.”

The programme was shortlisted for two British Journalism Awards.

During the programme Labour’s press team made claims that the staffers featured had political axes to grind and lacked credibility, and it is understood that they and Mr Ware have now commenced libel proceedings against the Labour Party. The libel cases are being brought by Mark Lewis, a highly esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Prime Minister uses Chanukah message to tell Jews “you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side” but Jeremy Corbyn fails to even mention Labour’s antisemitism and turns his message political

The contrast could not be starker in the Chanukah messages from Britain’s political leaders.

Countering antisemitism was central in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s video message. He said: “Today as Britain’s Jews seek to drive back the darkness of resurgent antisemitism, you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side. Britain would not be Britain without its Jewish community.”

Referencing recent fears within the Jewish community over antisemitism, he added: “And we will stand with you and celebrate with you at Chanukah, and all year round.”

However, the antisemitic Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, failed to even mention Labour’s antisemitism scandal. In a video message lasting over two minutes, Mr Corbyn completely ignored the antisemitism crisis in the Labour Party. He said: “It seems to be the right time to be thinking about the message of hope” but clearly not the right time to be thinking about antisemitism in his Party and its effect on the British Jewish community.

Instead, he attempted to explain to British Jews what Chanukah is and then descended into a political message. He said of lighting the Chanukah candles: “They have been lit in the worst of times” and cited some of the atrocities that befell the Jewish people. In echoes of his Rosh Hashanah message, Mr Corbyn seemed to equate the theme of the festival with the environment. On three occasions he talked about the climate crisis or emergency. He then attacked the Conservative Party and said: “Our communities now face the threat of years of policies that won’t heal divisions or end equality.”

Ed Davey, acting co-Leader of the Liberal Democrats, also focused on antisemitism in his video message, saying: “Regrettably, we still need to fight that antisemitism and religious persecution here in the UK and across the globe. British Jews are an integral part of our national identity.”

Nicola Sturgeon, Leader of the Scottish National Party, posted a short message on Twitter, noting: “Chanukah is a special time of year for Jewish communities to come together and celebrate their faith. I wish all of you celebrating in Scotland and across the world a peaceful and happy Chanukah — Chanukah sameach!”

The Green Party or its leaders have not sent a Chanukah message, and nor has the Brexit Party.

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Poll shows 39% of Brits believe Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and 47% believe Labour has an antisemitism problem

A representative poll of the British population conducted prior to the general election showed that 39% of respondents believe that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and that 47% believe that the Labour Party has an antisemitism problem.

The poll of 12,147 was commissioned from Deltapoll by a Jewish charity and conducted between 29th November and 2nd December 2019. The general election took place on 12th December.

The poll provides insight into how the British population understood and reacted to the accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. An overwhelming majority of the population had seen a lot or at least a little media coverage of antisemitism in recent months, with less than one fifth saying that they had not seen any coverage or were unsure if they had.

Almost a quarter of respondents believed that Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party are antisemitic, with an additional 15% believing that only Mr Corbyn is antisemitic, and 8% believing the Party is but its leader is not. Just over a fifth said that neither is antisemitic. However, almost half (47%) thought that Labour has a problem with antisemitism, with just over a quarter respectively thinking that it did not (26%) or did not know (27%). A clear majority of 59% considered that Mr Corbyn had been incompetent in handling accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Almost half of respondents (46%) believed a different leader of the Party would have handled the antisemitism crisis better.

One tenth of respondents believed that Mr Corbyn is hostile towards Jews, one quarter believed that he has poor judgment as a politician and 23% believed that he does not have prime ministerial qualities. Conversely, 8% said that he was not given a fair chance and 15% believed that the media is hostile towards him. If Mr Corbyn had handled the accusations of antisemitism in Labour better, 28% said that that would have made them more likely to vote Labour, while over half (55%) said that it would not.

Of those respondents who were considering voting Labour and believed that the Party has an antisemitism problem, 34% said that it made them less likely to vote Labour, 29% were prioritising other issues and 15% believed that it was more important to have a Labour government. Only 8% of those likely to vote Labour believed that the antisemitism problem was minor and being handled well.

For those respondents who had voted Labour in 2017 but were, at the time of the poll, uncertain about how they would vote, 16% cited antisemitism as the reason.

As to how the accusations of antisemitism in Labour made them feel, almost a quarter (24%) of respondents said that they were angry that Labour had a leader who could not deal with it properly and 13% said that they felt let down by Labour. As to the media’s role, 16% said that they were “annoyed with the media for over-hyping the story” and 15% said that they were “annoyed with the media for making too much of it”. 16% were also “annoyed with the Conservatives for using it for political reasons”, while 2% even said that the accusations of antisemitism made them “suspicious of Jews”.

A fifth said that they were worried about increasing racism in society and almost a third (31%) said that it made them embarrassed at the state of British politics. Only 15% said that the accusations of antisemitism in Labour had not really impacted them.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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.

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Ken Loach says claims about Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism are “lies” and defers to apparent JVL claim that antisemitism was “weaponised”

The controversial filmmaker, Ken Loach, has suggested that Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to a “torrent of abuse” and that regardless of what he did, the “campaign” of antisemitism accusations was “going to run and run”.

Mr Loach made the remarks in an interview on the BBC in the wake of Labour’s election defeat. Asked how he feels about the election result, Mr Loach said that he feels “anger that Jeremy has had a torrent of abuse — every Labour leader is abused but not to this extent. He’s a man of peace who’s been called a ‘terrorist’. He’s…been arrested against racism and been called a ‘racist’. And these things are lies.”

He added that Mr Corbyn faced a torrent abuse that was “off the scale”, and that, regarding antisemitism, “there was a campaign that was going to run and run”. He conceded that “there will be antisemitism in the Labour Party, as there is in other parties and across society,” but said he would defer to the Jews in the Labour Party who say that antisemitism was being “weaponised”, with particular reference to the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour.

Mr Loach has a history of inflammatory comments on the subject of antisemitism. He described the BBC’s Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism as “disgusting because it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism…and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn.” He was also reportedly behind a motion passed by Bath Labour Party branding the Panorama programme a “dishonest hatchet job with potentially undemocratic consequences” and asserting that it “disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC.” John Ware, the programme’s reporter, is apparently considering legal action against Mr Loach for his comments.

Mr Loach’s voice has been among the loudest of those who attempt to dismiss Labour’s antisemitism crisis as non-existent and a right-wing smear campaign.

In 2017, Mr Loach caused outrage when, during an interview with the BBC, he refused to denounce Holocaust denial. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is a manifestation of antisemitism. Although Mr Loach later sought to clarify his remarks, he has continued to make inflammatory and provocative statements about Labour’s antisemitism scandal. While speaking at a meeting of the Kingswood Constituency Labour Party, Mr Loach advocated the removal from the Party of those Labour MPs, some of whom are Jewish, who have taken a principled stand against antisemitism. Shortly after that incident, the Labour Party announced that it would no longer use Mr Loach as a producer of their election broadcasts.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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.

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France’s leading left-wing politician, Jean-Luc Melenchon, calls Labour antisemitism claims “baseless” and suggests “Likud networks” were behind Jeremy Corbyn’s election defeat

France’s leading left-wing politician, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has weighed in on the UK’s general election, claiming that one of the reasons that Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn lost the election was “baseless accusations of antisemitism” and “the various influence networks of the Likud”, Israel’s ruling party.

Mr Melenchon published his analysis in French on Facebook, where it caused a firestorm. He wrote: “Corbyn spent his time being insulted and stabbed in the back by a handful of Blairite MPs. Instead of fighting back, he restrained himself. He had to face the crude and baseless accusation of antisemitism levelled by the Chief Rabbi of England and the various influence networks of the Likud (the far-right party of Netanyahu in Israel). Instead of fighting back, he spent his time apologising and giving assurances. In both cases he showed a weakness which worried the public.”

Mr Melenchon’s ignorant and outrageous assertions come after Campaign Against Antisemitism warned that Jews may be made a scapegoat for Mr Corbyn’s election defeat.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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CAA statement as British public resoundingly decides to stand with its Jewish community and reject antisemites

Over the past several years, the Jewish community has watched the descent of the Labour Party into abject racism with horror. The Party twice elected an antisemitic leader and subjected the nation to a racist Leader of the Opposition. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has become institutionally antisemitic, defending antisemites and victimising those who stood up to them, cultivating animosity towards Jews at all levels and hounding out of the Party Jewish MPs and the most decent of their colleagues. This week saw yet more brazenly antisemitic displays by Mr Corbyn’s supporters.

Political developments appear to indicate that Mr Corbyn will not remain as leader of the Labour Party for long. At this time, we urge the Jewish community to be vigilant in case, as has happened so often in Jewish history and as the last few years and months foretell, the Jews may become a scapegoat as the more ardent of Mr Corbyn’s followers, many of whom hold antisemitic views, now search for where to cast the blame.

As to the Labour Party itself, two factions now exist within the parliamentary party: the first comprises those who support Mr Corbyn’s views towards Jews, including a cohort of new MPs; the second includes those who do not share his positions but who were nonetheless prepared to campaign for an antisemite to become Prime Minister. If the Labour Party wishes to begin to repair itself — an endeavour that will doubtless take some years — it is hard to see how either group could be trusted to lead that process.

That is why the involvement of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) — an invention of the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party — is so crucial. The EHRC continues with its full statutory investigation of the Party, which it launched on 28th May following detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, and as complainant, we are meeting with the EHRC again today. We expect that the EHRC’s findings will in due course provide a legally-enforceable action plan for Labour to navigate its way back to respectability.

Over these past few years, the Jewish community has learned a lot about our country. It has learned who its true friends are — the many — and it has identified the few upon whom it cannot rely when tough decisions need to be made: those who say all the right things but decline to match their words with action.

However, the Jewish community has discovered that a portion of its fellow citizens maintain an ill-disposition towards Jews and that a significant segment of the population is indifferent to Jewish concerns and plight. But it has also seen tremendous goodwill towards Jewry throughout the country, and for that, our small Jewish minority is profoundly grateful.

Whether a change in Labour’s leadership comes to represent a new chapter in the Party’s — and our country’s — story remains to be seen. But Campaign Against Antisemitism will continue to do its work exposing and combating antisemitism in all political parties and across society, and we will continue to rely on your support to do so.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Not for the first time, our nation has stood firm against antisemitism. The British public has watched the once proudly anti-racist Labour Party become infested with Jew-hatred and it has resoundingly decided to stand with its Jewish community and give the antisemites a crushing rebuke. The faith that British Jews showed in our country has been vindicated.

“We urgently need to return to a time when antisemitism had no place in our politics. We must not allow ourselves to forget the fear that many British Jews felt yesterday when a Jeremy Corbyn premiership remained a possibility. Firm action must now be taken against antisemites in politics and those who enabled them, but an antisemite cannot be trusted to rid the Labour Party of this evil. The next Labour leader must be someone who has not been implicated in this crisis and we will hold them to account. They will need to comply with the Equality and Human Rights Commission when it releases its recommendations and, as the complainant in the Commission’s statutory investigation into Labour antisemitism, we will be meeting them today.”

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Diehard supporters of Jeremy Corbyn turn their attention to the world’s oldest scapegoat

Britain has resoundingly rejected the politics of hate, albeit that millions still backed an institutionally antisemitic political party. However, the Jewish community must now brace itself for a potential backlash.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has urged the Jewish community to be vigilant in case, as has happened so often in Jewish history and as the last few years and months foretell, the Jews may become a scapegoat as the more ardent of Mr Corbyn’s followers, many of whom hold antisemitic views, now search for where to cast the blame.

As the Chief Rabbi, whose courageous intervention two weeks ago articulated the concerns of the Jewish community, has also noted: “The election may be over, but concerns about the resurgence of antisemitism very much remain.”

While votes were still being counted, notorious Jew-baiter Ken Livingstone already reportedly noted that “The Jewish vote wasn’t very helpful”.

Labour frontbencher Dan Carden also claimed that Jeremy Corbyn is “one of the most attacked and smeared leaders of a party we’ve ever had in this country.”

Asa Winstanley, who called the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) an “Israeli Embassy proxy” and was reportedly suspended from Labour in March, pending an investigation, observed: “The manufactured ‘antisemitism crisis’ spreads from Labour to a state-backed McCarthyist witch hunt. It was a fatal mistake to indulge these lies, and indulge liars like [former MP] John Mann [the Government’s independent antisemitism advisor].”

Meanwhile, a perusal of Twitter reveals how some frustration with the result is finding expression in worrying tropes, for example a journalist at the Irish Times describing the election as a “great result for Zionism: monsters are roaring their delight”.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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.

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Some antisemitic Labour members got “lesser sanctions”, according to Channel 4, as it again disputes Corbyn’s claims about how the Party has dealt with antisemitism

Channel 4’s fact checker has again disputed Jeremy Corbyn’s claims about Labour’s disciplinary processes, claiming that some members were reportedly given “lesser sanctions” for expressions of antisemitism.

Channel 4 suggests that this contradicts Mr Corbyn’s insistence that “where anyone has committed any antisemitic acts or made any antisemitic statements, they are either suspended or expelled from the Party.”

Mr Corbyn has recently stated that he had “strengthened processes” for dealing with antisemitism and that in the summer he had “proposed that egregious cases should be fast-tracked.” Although Channel 4 had reported that the new fast-track policy was still not in force by mid-October, it has now been clarified that the policy was implemented since then, but only used at one panel meeting on 5th November. The panel supposedly expelled “several” members in that session, but the exact number has not been disclosed.

Channel 4 concluded: “The new information we’ve had from this senior insider suggests it is still the case that people found to have said or done antisemitic things are not always suspended or expelled from the Labour party, despite what Mr Corbyn has claimed.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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.

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

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New Statesman declines to endorse Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism

The leading left-wing political journal, the New Statesman, has, unusually, declined to endorse the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism.

In an editorial the magazine read: “the essential judgement that must be made is on Mr Corbyn himself. His reluctance to apologise for the antisemitism in Labour and to take a stance on Brexit, the biggest issue facing the country, make him unfit to be prime minister.”

The editorial went on to note that Labour has become only the second party (after the BNP) to be probed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. That full statutory investigation was launched on 28th May following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

It also noted the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention calling out Labour antisemitism, warnings made by the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Labour Movement’s decision not to endorse its own Party, and other developments.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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

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Labour’s Barry Gardiner denies Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic, merely critical of Israel’s politics

Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner has said that Jeremy Corbyn and the Party have been wrongly accused of antisemitism, and that the Labour leader is merely “critical of the politics of Israel”.

Mr Gardiner, who is the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, said that it was “important” to have “clarity” on Mr Corbyn’s record, and that “What Jeremy [Corbyn] has always done is be critical of the politics of Israel and the way Israel has dealt with the Palestinian question. And he has been absolutely unequivocal on that. He has not and the Party has not, in my view, been antisemitic.”

However, in the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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.

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

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Lord Dyson says there is a “powerful case” that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite

Lord Dyson, the former Master of the Rolls and Supreme Court judge, has said that there is a “powerful case” that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite.

Lord Dyson, who is Jewish, made the remarks in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph. He said that he was “disturbed” by elements within the Labour Party, and described it as “deeply concerning” that Jewish MPs had been hounded out of the Party.

Asked whether he believes that Mr Corbyn is antisemitic, Lord Dyson replied: “I think all I can say is — I don’t want to say positively that he is antisemitic — but I think there is a powerful case that he may well be. I’m choosing my words rather carefully here.” He went on to say: “There is evidence that he is antisemitic, but I wouldn’t like to say positively that he is. There is evidence that he may well be.”

He added: “I’ve spoken to a lot of Jewish friends about this [and] some say that if Corbyn gets elected they will leave the country and they may well do that,” he said.

“There are undoubtedly some nasty things going on in certain parts of the Labour Party,” he said, agreeing that the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention in the election calling out Labour antisemitism was “justified”. 

As for whether he might leave the country, Lord Dyson insisted: “I must say I have absolutely no intention of doing that; I find that some of the things that are going on at the Labour Party at the moment disturbing and concerning, but I still think this is a wonderful country to live in.” However, Lord Dyson recently disclosed that his bags are at least metaphorically packed.

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Simon Wiesenthal Centre labels Jeremy Corbyn worst antisemite on the planet

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has reportedly declared that the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is the worst antisemite in the world.

The U.S.-based group, which is the leading Nazi-hunting organisation in the world, said: “No one has done more to mainstream antisemitism into the political and social life of a democracy than the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party. Members and staff who have dared to speak out against the hate were purged, but not those who declared ‘Heil Hitler’ and ‘F*** the Jews’.”

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the head of the Centre, said that Mr Corbyn will make Britain a “pariah”.

A Labour spokesman reacted by saying: “This ranking is ridiculous and grossly offensive. Putting Jeremy Corbyn at the head of a list containing neo-Nazi synagogue shooters is a transparent political attack and has nothing to do with tackling antisemitism.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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.

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

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CAA releases case files showing Jeremy Corbyn personally responsible for 24 antisemitic incidents, four times more than all candidates for other major parties combined

Campaign Against Antisemitism is today publishing the 29 case files from our database of more than 300 entries. The research, which is available now on our website examines involvement in antisemitic discourse by all parliamentary candidates and party leaders.

The research shows that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. This means that, if Jeremy Corbyn were a political party, the ‘Jeremy Corbyn party’ would be responsible for almost four times more incidents than all the other major parties combined.

Moreover, far from investigating and eliminating antisemitism, Jeremy Corbyn is injecting more of  it into Parliament, as 36 percent of incidents across all political parties were committed by Labour’s new candidates, who have not been MPs before.

Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Our Antisemitism in Political Parties project is the most comprehensive long-term analysis of antisemitism among the officers of political parties ever undertaken in Britain. It examines officers from party leaders down to those who chair constituency branches of parties, and will be maintained as an online resource indefinitely, for use by journalists, researchers and the public. The project’s core aim is to assess how Britain’s political parties deal with antisemitism, and to publicly display a full ongoing record of antisemitic incidents in all parties. 

The project was set up by and is supervised by academics, and uses a strict methodology. A permanent dedicated team at Campaign Against Antisemitism researches and chronicles social media, discourse at events and reports from the public and the media, using a variety of techniques. For any individual who has been responsible for an antisemitic act since January 2013, it analyses the full history of that individual’s antisemitism, numbers the incidents themselves, gives a full analysis of how they qualify as antisemitic acts, and then details the outcomes in terms of reactions and media reports. Finally, Campaign Against Antisemitism gives a traffic light verdict on how the party to which those individuals belong have dealt with the incident. 

Incidents are strictly defined as either breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism, or dissemination and/or endorsement of such breaches by others. Incidents are verified and linked to sources, and requests for comment sent to the individuals concerned, making it an invaluable go-to resource for journalists. Incidents are attributed to the parties where the individual was a member when they took place. Finally, statistical analysis is applied, analysing the proportion of individuals and incidents by each party and individual.

We have included only current parliamentary candidates and party leaders. We have excluded those individuals who were fully adopted by their parties as parliamentary candidates but who, in the last few weeks, have been withdrawn because of a public outcry after previous antisemitic acts were revealed and are no longer candidates. These include seven Labour, two Conservative, one SNP and one Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates. Among those excluded are candidates such as Safia Ali in Falkirk, who was withdrawn by the Labour Party so late that her name will still be on the ballot paper alongside Labour’s logo. 

Furthermore, because of our strict methodology, individuals who have come to the public’s attention who are of concern to the Jewish community — for example, those who enthusiastically endorsed the disgraced former MP Chris Williamson or Ken Livingstone — are not currently included. These presently number a further eleven cases.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “This research project began in 2015 and is still ongoing. The release today of 29 case files, covering MPs and Parliamentary candidates, now available on our website, makes for disturbing reading. Jeremy Corbyn cannot possibly claim to be ‘dealing’ with the problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party when he has more recorded antisemitic acts to his name than any other candidate. Moreover, far from eliminating antisemitism in politics, the Labour Party has fielded a cohort of new candidates who already account for over a third of acts of antisemitism themselves. Our regrettable conclusion is that Labour’s antisemitism crisis is likely to get even worse in the coming years.”

Yesterday, thousands of Jews and non-Jews attended a star-studded national rally in Parliament Square to stand #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism. Speakers included barrister and television presenter Robert Rinder; award-winning actress and columnist Tracy Ann Oberman; acclaimed historian Tom Holland; the president of the Hindu Forum of Britain, Trupti Patel; and the founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, who said: “Britain is not Britain without Jews.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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.

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

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Watch new video of Corbyn embracing radical antisemitic cleric Raed Salah after he was found to have disseminated antisemitic blood libel

New video has emerged of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn embracing the The firebrand Islamic cleric, Sheikh Raed Salah, after Sheikh Salah was found by the Court of Appeal to have promoted the antisemitic blood libel that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children.

Sheikh Salah, who was recently convicted in a court in Israel for incitement to terrorism, is best known in the UK as an object of Mr Corbyn’s warm praise. Sheikh Salah is a prolific antisemite who claims that Israel planned 9/11. Yet Mr Corbyn has said that “Salah’s is a voice that must be heard” and publicly told Sheikh Salah: “I look forward to giving you tea on the terrace because you deserve it!”

Mr Corbyn is also thought to have been the author of an article in the Morning Star in 2011 protesting Sheikh Salah’s arrest. The article also said: “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the Zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”

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.

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Channel 4 suggests Corbyn may have misled viewers about improvement of Labour antisemitism disciplinary processes

Channel 4 is reporting that it has seen evidence showing that, contrary to assertions by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Party’s enhanced disciplinary processes were not expected to be implemented until after the general election.

Mr Corbyn told the BBC’s Andrew Neil in a ‘car crash’ interview last week that he had “strengthened processes” since then and that “during the last few months” he had “proposed that egregious cases should be fast-tracked”.

However, Channel 4 has reported that an internal Labour Party document showing that in as late as mid-October a senior Party source did not expect the policy to be implemented until after the election.

Requests by Channel 4 for proof from Labour of the new processes having been introduced already were apparently initially ignored, but eventually Labour replied, insisting that the fast-track expulsion policy was now in force and that “a number of people have been expelled under those new powers” this month. As evidence, the Party pointed to remarks by the Party’s General Secretary, Jennie Formby, in the Jewish News over the weekend, which came after Mr Corbyn’s interview and the publication of Channel 4’s original article.

Channel 4’s conclusion: “Mr Corbyn claims to have ‘strengthened processes’, but the evidence we’ve seen casts doubt on whether the new policy has actually taken effect.”

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Man who criticised Jeremy Corbyn on Twitter has swastika sent to his home by first class post, police investigating

A Jewish filmmaker from Hertfordshire who has become increasingly worried about the rise of antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has received a swastika by post at his home address after tweeting criticism of the Labour leader.

On Friday, his partner was outside their house while the postman was carrying out his rounds. He handed her a bundle of post in which the antisemitic poison pen letter was included. It was a single sheet of paper with a swastika crudely drawn in the middle, delivered in a stamped envelope. The filmmaker ran his own company for several years from his home address, and believes that the perpetrator tracked him down via information held at Companies House as his Twitter handle and bio included the name of his company.

He was shocked on opening the letter but has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that he finds this sort of low level bullying “pathetic”. Rather than frightening him, the man is now more determined than ever to expose and call out antisemitism wherever he witnesses it, however his partner has been shaken and worried by the incident. He immediately reported the letter to the police and an investigation has commenced.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are assisting the victim and the police are investigating. This is hardly the first time that we have seen antisemitism in politics cross into criminality. The perpetrator must be brought to justice to send a strong message to those trying to intimidate anyone standing up to antisemitism in the Labour Party.”

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.

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Video re-emerges of Corbyn saying BBC is biased towards saying “Israel has a right to exist”

Video has re-emerged of Jeremy Corbyn telling Press TV that the BBC is biased towards saying “Israel has a right to exist”.

The Labour leader, who was a backbench MP at the time, told the Iranian-backed station: “I think there is a bias [in the BBC] towards saying that Israel has a democracy in the Middle East, that Israel has a right to exist, Israel has its security concerns.”

Mr Corbyn also suggested that there was “a great deal of pressure on the BBC from the Israeli Government and the Israeli Embassy,” seemingly implying that the Jewish state wielded some significant influence over the BBC’s output.

Mr Corbyn is understood to have been paid up to £20,000 for his various appearances on Press TV, which was banned in the UK for its part in filming the detention and torture of an Iranian journalist.

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.

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Respected European Rabbi Menachem Margolin says Corbyn’s legacy is abhorrent to the Jews of Europe

The respected Rabbi Menachem Margolin has delivered a blistering attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Rabbi Margolin, who is based in Belgium, is the founder and chairman of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, a leading organisation in the community.

On Mr Corbyn, Rabbi Margolin told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “There is no nuance, no clever turn of phrase or election soundbite that can undo what is done by Jeremy Corbyn. His record of supporting terrorists who want nothing short of the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State, his sympathy with those who murder and maim women, children, the elderly – any civilian – as long as they are Jewish – is a matter of public record that no amount of spin or whitewashing can erase. This is his legacy. He must live with it, and the solid and justified judgement and abhorrence that comes with it from the vast majority of Jews, not just in the UK but in Europe too.”

Rabbi Margolin’s intervention comes following that of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who declared that Mr Corbyn is “unfit for office”. The Chief Rabbi was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Senior Sephardi Rabbi, Joseph Dweck.

It also comes after a fringe anti-Zionist group, United European Jews, released a statement backing Mr Corbyn. A previous letter by this group was promoted by Jewish Voice for Labour, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.

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.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s tea companion Raed Salah convicted of incitement to terrorism

The firebrand Islamic cleric, Sheikh Raed Salah, has been convicted in a court in Israel for incitement to terrorism.

Sheikh Salah is best known in the UK as an object of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s warm praise. Sheikh Salah is a prolific antisemite who claims that Israel planned 9/11 and who has, according to the Court of Appeal, even promoted the antisemitic blood libel that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children. Yet Mr Corbyn has said that “Salah’s is a voice that must be heard” and publicly told Sheikh Salah: “I look forward to giving you tea on the terrace because you deserve it!”

Mr Corbyn is also thought to have been the author of an article in the Morning Star in 2011 protesting Sheikh Salah’s arrest. The article also said: “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the Zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”

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.

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Corbyn refuses to apologise to Jewish community for Labour antisemitism, and appears to admit Chakrabarti report was not independent

Jeremy Corbyn has refused to apologise to the Jewish community for the Labour Party’s institutional antisemitism and his role in it.

Mr Corbyn was interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil last night in what was widely panned as a disastrous conversation for the Labour leader, a full third of which was spent discussing Labour’s antisemitism crisis and the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention of earlier this week.

The Labour leader stood by his outlandish claim that Labour’s processes were fit for purpose and that “every single case” had been investigated, despite evidence to the contrary.

In a notable slip, Mr Corbyn appeared to admit that the report on antisemitism in the Labour Party produced by Shami Chakrabarti was not independent, saying: “I made that very clear in the Chakrabarti Report which we did very early on…”.

The full transcript of the interview is available here.

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.

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Corbyn shares platform with Labour candidates with troubling records on anti-Jewish racism as Labour launches race manifesto

The launch of Labour’s controversial Race and Faith manifesto today was mired with controversy, as Mr Corbyn shared a platform with Labour candidates with troubling records on anti-Jewish racism.

The event was delayed and already overshadowed by the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention criticising the Labour Party over its institutional antisemitism and the manifesto’s sinister pledge to reform the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is currently investigating the Labour Party following a complaint from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Those sharing the platform with Mr Corbyn today included Afzal Khan, an MP who reportedly compared Israeli policy to that of the Nazis; candidate Apsana Begum, who accused Tony Blair of spreading ‘Zionist propaganda’ and who claimed that the leaders of Saudia Arabia were ‘inspired by Zionist masters’; and Claudia Webbe, who defended Ken Livingstone’s comparison of a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard and who also heads up Labour’s disputes panel, which decides how to deal with members embroiled in antisemitic controversy.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Another day, another example of the institutional antisemitism of the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn today announced his Party’s race relations manifesto, which makes a sinister call for reforming the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the very body that is investigating the Labour Party over antisemitic racism following a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

“Meanwhile, those sharing the platform with Mr Corbyn are hardly paragons of anti-racism. Instead, their views are what the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn stands for. Jeremy Corbyn has now again assured the country that he does not tolerate antisemitism ‘whatsoever’, but he surrounds himself with it, and in the past has even perpetrated it himself. Jeremy Corbyn is gaslighting Britain’s Jews.”

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.

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Leader of Britain’s Sephardi Jewish community backs Chief Rabbi over Jeremy Corbyn

The Senior Rabbi of Britain’s Sephardi Jewish community has issued a statement fulsomely backing the Chief Rabbi over his unprecedented intervention, in which he warned that Jeremy Corbyn was “unfit for office” and that “the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

Rabbi Joseph Dweck wrote: “As a rule we as rabbis are careful to keep out of national politics. But as Chief Rabbi Mirvis said, this comes to an issue of racism and a large portion of the Jewish community does not look at the potential election of Corbyn as a question between liberal and conservative politics, but rather, the difference between the safety and peace of Jewish life in this country, and G-d forbid, the alternative.

“My community is the oldest in this country, dating back to 1656. We have over the last 364 years contributed greatly to every sector of British society, and in turn, Britain has been very good to our people. Given the history of antisemitism in Europe, the hateful spectre that casts a shadow over the rhetoric and ideas of Mr Corbyn and his party gives us significant reason for concern and so the Chief Rabbi has raised his voice in concern and caution. I stand with him and his message.”

Rabbi Dweck is one of the most respected voices in the British Jewish community, representing the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Jewish community which was the first to return to Britain following the expulsion of all Jews in 1290.

Earlier today the Archbishop of Canterbury also backed the Chief Rabbi.

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.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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Archbishop of Canterbury backs Chief Rabbi over his comments about Jeremy Corbyn, warning “visible action” is needed, not just words

The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed the Chief Rabbi over his unprecedented intervention, in which he warned that Jeremy Corbyn was “unfit for office” and that “the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

Archbishop Justin Welby, who is the most senior clergyman in the Church of England has this morning issued a statement warning that there is a “deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.”

Stating that “None of us can afford to be complacent”, the Archbishop made a thinly veiled attack on those who continually deplore antisemitism whilst doing nothing against it, writing: “Voicing words that commit to a stand against antisemitism requires a corresponding effort in visible action.”

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.

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Chief Rabbi attacks Corbyn and calls on Britons to “vote with their conscience” in unprecedented intervention, saying “soul of our nation is at stake”

In an unprecedented intervention, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Ephraim Mirvis, has asked in The Times how far Jeremy Corbyn would have to go to be considered “unfit for office”, rhetorically asking readers: “What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country? When December 12 arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience. Be in no doubt, the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

Acknowledging that he had broken with precedent, he wrote: “Convention dictates that the Chief Rabbi stays well away from party politics — and rightly so. However, challenging racism is not a matter of politics, it goes well beyond that.”

Noting that “British Jews are gripped by anxiety”, he wrote that “the question I am now most frequently asked is: What will become of Jews and Judaism in Britain if the Labour Party forms the next government?”

Remarking on the past four years of Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, he wrote that the Jewish community had “been treated by many as an irritant, as opposed to a minority community with genuine concerns [about antisemitism in the Labour Party.”

He admonished politicians who “have sat silent” and wrote that “We have learned the hard way that speaking out means that we will be demonised by faceless social media trolls and accused of being partisan or acting in bad faith by those who still think of this as an orchestrated political smear. Yet, I ask myself: should the victims of racism be silenced by the fear of yet further vilification?”

The Chief Rabbi then exhorted British voters to examine their consciences before voting, pleading “with the heaviest of hearts, I call upon the citizens of our great country to study what has been unfolding before our very eyes.” Enumerating failures by the Labour Party to act, and listing some of Mr Corbyn’s own antisemitic acts, he concluded: “How far is too far? How complicit in prejudice would a leader of Her Majesty’s opposition have to be to be considered unfit for office? Would associations with those who have incited hatred against Jews be enough? Would describing as ‘friends’ those who endorse the murder of Jews be enough? It seems not. It is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I regret being in this situation at all. I simply pose the question: What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country? When December 12 arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience. Be in no doubt, the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

The Chief Rabbi is the latest Jewish religious leader to break with convention and speak out on politics. In the past month, Rabbi Jonathan Romain called on his community to vote against Labour and Rabbi Yuval Keren told his community to vote tactically against Labour.

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.

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Jeremy Corbyn shared platform with speakers who said Zionism made the Jews “immoral” and endorsed violent Jihad

It has emerged that Jeremy Corbyn shared a platform in 2008 with a speaker who claimed that Zionism has made the Jews “immoral”, while another endorsed violent Jihad against Israelis.

The footage from a 2008 rally shows Mr Corbyn, then a backbench Labour MP, on a stage with Ismail Patel, the chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa, who said that Zionism had a “devastating effect on the Jewish community itself: it has made them immoral in justice.” Mr Corbyn was on the stage and appeared to embrace Mr Patel when the latter concluded his remarks.

Mr Corbyn has a long relationship with Friends of Al-Aqsa, which raised £10,000 for his first leadership campaign, although it subsequently emerged that most of that donation had not been declared by Mr Corbyn, in an apparent breach of Electoral Commission rules.

Mr Patel is also known to have defended the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hamas, saying: “Hamas is not a terrorist organisation. The reason that they hate Hamas is because they refuse to be subjugated to be occupied by the Israeli state and we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel.” Mr Corbyn has infamously referred to Hamas as his “friends”.

Another speaker at the 2008 rally was the academic, Azzam Tamimi, who urged the people of Gaza to “explode in their faces” and engage in Jihad, in an apparent reference to violent terrorism against Israelis. Mr Corbyn is seen at the side of the stage when these comments were made.

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.

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Labour candidate Laura McAlpine heckled for defending Corbyn’s record on Hamas and terrorists, and her own campaign staff

Labour’s Harlow general election candidate was heckled at a hustings for defending Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s relationship with the genocidal antisemitic group Hamas and other terrorists.

Laura McAlpine, who is fighting to unseat the Conservative MP in the marginal seat, described Mr Corbyn as “a man of peace”, and dismissed a questioner asking about Mr Corbyn’s relationship with Hamas and other terrorist groups by telling him to “do a little bit of reading and then come back to me.”

She insisted that the “Labour Party is an anti-racist Party” and has “robust procedures” to deal with antisemitism, a comment that was met with jeers.

Ms McAlpine also clearly had supporters in the audience.

Mr McAlpine also again defended her campaign chief, Brett Hawksbee, who was revealed to have written to colleagues that “the fear of many on the left is that the ideological successors of the bombers of the King David Hotel, the mass murderers who decimated Deir Yassin, would be quite happy to see a pogrom in Gaza and the West Bank, a Jewish final solution to the Palestine problem.” The comment, which clearly breached the International Definition of Antisemitism for drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, was even criticised by a Labour Party official, but Ms McAlpine stood by Mr Hawksbee. Mr Hawksbee has been a vocal defender of Chris Williamson, the disgraced MP who resigned from the Labour Party after being told he could not stand as a candidate for the Party.

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.”

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.

Video Credit: Your Harlow

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Jeremy Corbyn laughed at in ITV election debate as he lied about Labour’s handling of its antisemitism crisis

At ITV’s general election debate yesterday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was laughed at as he lied about his Party’s handling of its antisemitism crisis.

Asked about why Labour had become a “cesspit of antisemitism”, Mr Corbyn was met with ridicule from the audience as he insisted that antisemitism is “an absolute evil and scourge within our society”. He then appended his usual clarification that “racism in any form is a scourge in our society.”

The Labour leader then proceeded to claim: “I have taken action within my Party where anyone has committed any antisemitic acts or made any antisemitis statements. They are either suspended or expelled from the Party and we’ve investigated every single case. We do take this very very seriously indeed, because I do not want to live in a society where racism is rife. I understand and recognise the history – the desperate history – of the Jewish People in the twentieth century, which came about from an unrestriction [sic] of antisemitism in the 1920s. We’ve got to stand up against racism in any form in our society.”

However, despite Mr Corbyn’s absurd claim to the contrary, there in fact remain scores of cases, including some dating back years, that have not been dealt with at all, while numerous notorious cases have been processed slowly and reluctantly and in some cases the figures involved have remained within the Party or have only been removed due to public pressure. Indeed Mr Corbyn himself has yet to be disciplined for his own record of antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s monitoring of antisemitism in the Labour Party led to the Equality and Human Rights Commission launching a full statutory investigation on 28th May following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. Our research has shown that cases such as that of Corby ally Peter Willsman are stalled and that Mr Corbyn’s office has repeatedly interfered in the disciplinary process.

Nevertheless, Mr Corbyn’s claim was defended today by Labour frontbencher Dawn Butler.

During the debate, Mr Corbyn was also asked about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and at one point referred to the late Mr Epstein as ‘ep-shtein’, in what some considered to be an attempt to emphasise his Jewishness.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “To our nation’s shame, we have been exposed to the spectacle of an antisemitic leader lying on television to millions about his Party’s record on dealing with antisemitism, while busily filling his Party’s top spots and coveted seats with those who will perpetuate antisemitism for another generation to come. In this dire situation for Jews, we call on all decent British people to stand together with us against antisemitism.

“Jeremy Corbyn’s risible attempt to deceive viewers about his handling of Labour’s antisemitism crisis was compounded by his bizarre and inconsistent pronunciation of the Jewish surname of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, referring to him at one point as ‘ep-shtein’. Mr Corbyn’s abhorrent record on Jews certainly raises questions as to whether the Labour leader was attempting to underscore Mr Epstein’s Jewishness.”

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.”

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.

Mr Corbyn’s comments on antisemitism can be viewed below from 26:14.

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Usual suspects sign disgraceful letter saying Jeremy Corbyn “is being smeared as an antisemite by people who should know better”

A number of actors and academics have endorsed a disgraceful letter describing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as “a life-long committed anti-racist” who “is being smeared as an antisemite by people who should know better.”

While conceding that antisemitism is present within society and all political parties, including Labour, the signatories insist that “no political party or political leader has done more to address this problem than Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party,” and outrageously claim that “Labour’s political opponents and much of the media have trivialised and weaponised this issue for ideological ends.”

The signatories include various familiar controversialists such as academics Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Yanis Varoufakis; actors Mark Ruffalo, Mark Rylance and Steve Coogan; playwright Caryl Churchill; designer Vivienne Westwood; and musicians Brian Eno and Roger Waters. Some of the signatories have made second careers out of baiting Jews.

The letter follows a previous letter by a group of prominent, respected figures calling out Labour antisemitism and showing solidarity with Britain’s Jewish community.

Meanwhile, former Labour member Eddie Marsan, said of Mr Corbyn that “you are either antisemitic or you are ignorant”, declaring that, after voting for Labour since 1987, he would no longer do so, and would be launching an initiative for the Liberal Democrats.

Campaign Against Antisemitism rejects the disgraceful assertion that Labour’s institutional antisemitism has been “trivialised” or “weaponised”, not least given that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched a full statutory investigation into the Labour Party. We are further troubled by the sinister suggestion that Mr Corbyn’s antisemitism is a “smear” propagated by “people who should know better”, a pitiful attempt to hide behind innuendo.

The EHRC launched its full statutory investigation on 28th May 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.”

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Labour claims 24 public figures who denounced Corbyn and Labour over antisemitism are actually just racists and misogynists

The Labour Party has vehemently rejected criticism from the 24 public figures who denounced Jeremy Corbyn and Labour over antisemitism and accused several of them of antisemitism, Islamophobia and misogyny.

Twenty-four non-Jewish authors, actors, television and radio presenters, human rights campaigners and technologists wrote to The Guardian denouncing Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party over antisemitism.

A Labour Party spokesperson responded to the letter saying: “It’s extraordinary that several of those who have signed this letter have themselves been accused of antisemitism, Islamophobia and misogyny. It’s less surprising that a number are Conservatives and Lib Dems.”

They added: “We take allegations of antisemitism extremely seriously, we are taking robust action and we are absolutely committed to rooting it out of our party and wider society.”

The signatories included Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales; actors and actresses Joanna Lumley OBE, Simon Callow CBE; authors David Cornwell (who writes as John le Carré), Fay Weldon CBE, Frederick Forsyth CBE, William Boyd CBE, Tony Parsons, Sathnam Sanghera, and Ed Husain; historians Tom Holland, Sir Antony Beevor and Peter Frankopan; television presenters Dan Snow MBE, Nick Hewer, Dan Jones, Janina Ramirez, and Suzannah Lipscomb; radio presenter Maajid Nawaz; producer Terry Jervis; journalist Oz Katerji and human rights campaigners Trevor Phillips OBE, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, and Ghanem Nuseibeh.

Noting that the Party is now under statutory investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission following legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant, the public figures said that Jews were in “anguish” and being ignored.

They wrote: “We listen to our Jewish friends and see how their pain has been relegated as an issue, pushed aside by arguments about Britain’s European future…now, it seems, is not the time for Jewish anxiety.”

However they warned: “But antisemitism is central to a wider debate about the kind of country we want to be. To ignore it because Brexit looms larger is to declare that anti-Jewish prejudice is a price worth paying for a Labour government. Which other community’s concerns are disposable in this way? Who would be next? Opposition to racism cannot include surrender in the fight against antisemitism…The path to a more tolerant society must encompass Britain’s Jews with unwavering solidarity. We endorse no party. However, we cannot in all conscience urge others to support a political party we ourselves will not.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is deeply grateful to each of them for their solidarity with the Jewish community.

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.”

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.

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Top non-Jewish authors, actors, television and radio presenters, human rights campaigners and technologists unite to denounce Corbyn and Labour over antisemitism

Twenty-four non-Jewish authors, actors, television and radio presenters, human rights campaigners and technologists have written to The Guardian denouncing Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Noting that the Party is now under statutory investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission following legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant, the public figures said that Jews were in “anguish” and being ignored.

They wrote: “We listen to our Jewish friends and see how their pain has been relegated as an issue, pushed aside by arguments about Britain’s European future…now, it seems, is not the time for Jewish anxiety.”

However they warned: “But antisemitism is central to a wider debate about the kind of country we want to be. To ignore it because Brexit looms larger is to declare that anti-Jewish prejudice is a price worth paying for a Labour government. Which other community’s concerns are disposable in this way? Who would be next? Opposition to racism cannot include surrender in the fight against antisemitism…The path to a more tolerant society must encompass Britain’s Jews with unwavering solidarity. We endorse no party. However, we cannot in all conscience urge others to support a political party we ourselves will not.”

The signatories include Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales; actors and actresses Joanna Lumley OBE and Simon Callow CBE; authors David Cornwell (who writes as John le Carré), Fay Weldon CBE, Frederick Forsyth CBE, William Boyd CBE, Tony Parsons, Sathnam Sanghera, and Ed Husain; historians Tom Holland, Sir Antony Beevor and Peter Frankopan; television presenters Dan Snow MBE, Nick Hewer, Dan Jones, Janina Ramirez, and Suzannah Lipscomb; radio presenter Maajid Nawaz; producer Terry Jervis; journalist Oz Katerji and human rights campaigners Trevor Phillips OBE, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, and Ghanem Nuseibeh.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is deeply grateful to each of them for their solidarity with the Jewish community.

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.”

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.

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Labour frontbencher, Laura Pidcock, reportedly uses words from Jesus Christ’s crucifixion to describe critics of Jeremy Corbyn at her campaign launch

Laura Pidcock, the Labour Party’s Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights, who is tipped to become Labour’s new Deputy Leader, reportedly used words from Jesus Christ’s crucifixion to describe critics of Jeremy Corbyn at her campaign launch.

Ms Pidcock, who was elected the MP for North West Durham in 2017, said: “I know we are on the path towards justice. And I know because Jeremy Corbyn might become PM they will throw everything at us. They will say some really hurtful things. Forgive them. For they know not what they do.”

Ms Pidcock’s final sentence is a line spoken by Jesus before he was crucified, according to the New Testament, and some have observed that it has also been used to stir up religious hatred against Jews in bygone centuries.

Ms Pidcock’s spokesperson rejected these criticisms and told the JC: “Laura said a well known and often quoted verse from the bible at her campaign launch. Any suggestion that her doing so was antisemitic is absurd and defamatory.”

The suggestion that condemnations of Mr Corbyn for his character or views — including his antisemitism — might be neutralised in this fashion is concerning.

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.”

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SNP confirms it would put antisemite Jeremy Corbyn into 10 Downing Street in return for certain policies

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that her Party would support a minority Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn if certain policies are pursued. She said she “would drive a hard bargain”.

Recently, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to all the Opposition parties in Parliament (other than Labour) asking whether they would rule out making Mr Corbyn, who is an antisemite, Prime Minister.

The Rt Hon. Ian Blackford MP provided the SNP’s detailed response, in which he wrote: “I want to make it clear that the SNP abhors antisemitism in the strongest possible way. We believe that the recent political events show that now more than ever politicians should be responsible with their actions and use language with care. The SNP is absolutely opposed to racism and antisemitism in all its forms.”

Nevertheless, the SNP then and again now has affirmed its readiness to back Mr Corbyn. It is difficult to square the Party’s self-proclaimed commitment to oppose racism and antisemitism in all its forms while also backing an antisemitic leader for Prime Minister.

Principled opposition to racism is incompatible with a willingness to be bought for the price of a few policies.

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.”

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Famed Soviet human rights campaigner Natan Sharansky says antisemitism in Corbyn’s Labour Party reminds him of USSR

The famous Soviet “refusnik” and human rights campaigner, Natan Sharansky, has said that the antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is reminiscent of the USSR.

Mr Sharansky, who became famous for being refused the right to emigrate to Israel by Soviet authorities but eventually rose to become Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister, expressed concern in an interview that Mr Corbyn and many of his supporters adopt positions on Israel and Zionists redolent of the antisemitic rhetoric in the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Mr Sharasnky declared that Mr Corbyn’s “extreme anti-Zionism” is “practically almost impossible to differ sometimes from antisemitism”, reminiscing how the support he received from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was enhanced by the backing of Labour activists and lamenting that now, looking at the Labour Party, “as we know from Russia, it starts from anti-Zionism and goes to classic antisemitism and then much further.”

He urged Mr Corbyn to “change your positions [on Hamas and related matters] or stop lying that you have no problem with Jews.”

Mr Sharasnky said that he finds antisemitism “easier to identify” because “I am from the Soviet Union, Stalin’s Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union was speaking against Israel, everybody knew that it was about your Jewish neighbours…and when Soviet propaganda was speaking about ‘cosmopolites’, everybody knew that it was about Jews. These rather cold words which were used for a very open antisemitic campaign against Jews who are ‘not a loyal part of our population’ and Israel was simply used as proof that they’re not loyal.” He added that “for me it is so easy because it looks exactly like Soviet rhetoric…that was official Soviet propaganda, and the fact that it is now repeated by Iran and supported by Corbyn, that’s very sad.”

Fearing the growing acceptance of anti-Jewish prejudice, Mr Sharasnky said that “it’s surprising for me how Britain has become an example that antisemitism doesn’t stand on the extremes. It starts from the extremes and then goes to the mainstream.” He also noted that he hears “all the time from” British Jews, including “some serious representatives of the Jewish community of London” who are considering moving to Israel out of fear of a Corbyn-led government in the UK, with some families “buying apartments…not for them, for their children.”

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.”

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Pollster reports focus group “slated” Jeremy Corbyn for antisemitism “straight away” despite not knowing what antisemitism meant just a year ago

A polling expert has reported that in a focus group in a London constituency that he carried out, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was “slated for antisemitism.” James Johnson, who used to conduct polling for 10 Downing Street under Theresa May, said that the public “did not know what this word meant a year ago” but that when the focus group began, it “Came up straight away”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism considers this to be a reassuring vindication of our work to educate the public about antisemitism and raise awareness of the extent of anti-Jewish prejudice in British politics and society, and that of our allies within and without the Jewish community.

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.”

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Diane Abbott is “totally out of touch with reality” for claiming Stamford Hill Jews don’t believe Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite

Community leaders in Stamford Hill have challenged their local MP, Diane Abbott, over her claim that “not every element of the Jewish community says Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite” and that, in contrast to other communal bodies and newspapers, the “Jewish community in Stamford Hill doesn’t say that.”

When pressed on Labour’s response to its antisemitism crisis, Ms Abbott insisted that “we are still doing everything we can,” echoing comments over the weekend by the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell.

Community leaders rejected Ms Abbott’s characterisation that “one of the biggest voting blocks in Hackney is in Stamford Hill which historically is a large and vibrant Jewish community and I’ve spoken to them about this” and that “I talk to them all the time. I listen to the people and I listen to my constituents.”

Rabbi Abraham Pinter, a former Labour councillor in the area and a prominent figure in the community, described Ms Abbott as “being totally out of touch with the reality” of how Jews in her constituency feel about antisemitism.

Rabbi Pinter went on to say: “I don’t know who she is talking about. Because there is no question that the majority of the people I talk to in the community are talking about antisemitism in the party, it is a concern in the community. We have others, but to suggest that we are not concerned about what has happened in the Labour Party or think they have done enough is false.”

He accused the Shadow Home Secretary of deploying “imperialistic tactics of divide and rule” and using the ultra-orthodox Charedi community “for political gain”. He added that “my personal experiences of antisemitism in the Labour party are well documented. She knows about them and yet she has the arrogance to ignore the issue.” He also resented her suggestion that the community votes as a “block”, which he described as “arrogance”.

Rabbi Pinter and others even contested Ms Abbott’s assertion that she speaks to the community, with one leader maintaining that “the idea that she engages with us or reaches out to talk is utter lies. We have never heard from her. She doesn’t engage with us and she doesn’t understand our concerns.”

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.”

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Jo Swinson lambasts Jeremy Corbyn on antisemitism in Lib Dem campaign launch and rules out backing him as PM

Jo Swinson has condemned Jeremy Corbyn for his handling of Labour’s antisemitism crisis in a strong rebuke as she launched the Liberal Democrats’ general election campaign this morning.

Asked in the press conference whether she might potentially back Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister in return for concessions on Brexit policy, Ms Swinson said that she “categorically” rules out the prospect of Liberal Democrats’ votes putting Mr Corbyn into Downing Street, insisting that the Labour leader is not fit to be Prime Minister.

Ms Swinson, who leads the Liberal Democrats, noted her opposition to his positions on Brexit, the economy and national security, but then she turned to antisemitism, and stated:: “Most importantly, the reason why people are Remain [on the Brexit question] is about values, and one of those values is so important – is the value of equality – for recognising that people can be themselves, as individuals, whatever the colour of their skin, whatever G-d they pray to, whoever they are. And Jeremy Corbyn’s complete and utter failure to root out antisemitism in his own Party, is a – just – total dereliction of duty when it comes to protecting that value of equality.”

She noted that Luciana Berger, a former Labour MP who resigned from the Party over antisemitism and is now a Liberal Democrat candidate, “was driven out of the Labour Party”, and that Dame Louise Ellman MP also recently resigned over Labour antisemitism as well. Reacting to those resignations, Ms Swinson said: “Anybody as a Party leader in that situation should be very clearly examining their conscience about what is happening in that Party – and even now he [Mr Corbyn] is not doing it. He dismisses that the problem is even there [sic]. He’s not fit to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”

Ms Swinson has previously declared that the Liberal Democrats would not back Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister. However, a few weeks ago, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to all the Opposition parties in Parliament (other than Labour) asking whether they would rule out making Mr Corbyn Prime Minister, and we were disappointed that although some Party leaders did respond, Ms Swinson did not.

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.”

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Momentum’s Laura Parker defends Jeremy Corbyn and Labour on antisemitism

Laura Parker, Momentum’s National Coordinator, was challenged on LBC on Labour’s antisemitism crisis and the role of Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Ms Parker recognised that the antisemitism crisis “has troubled people” but insisted that Momentum “has been clear there is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party or in wider society,” claiming that “Labour is a Party of anti-racist activity – we’ve got people up and down the country who are working with community groups.”

Although Ms Parker conceded that there are “some people with views which are you know somewhere between unpalatable and absolutely unacceptable,” she stressed that this was a minuscule proportion of the Party’s membership. She also submitted that “the Labour Party has taken measures to address this. It’s – you know – got a new general secretary, it’s looked through all of its compliance procedures, I mean we at Momentum we’ve down a huge amount of work – we’ve put some films out which have been seen by millions of people, explaining to people about antisemitism, where it comes from and its historic roots…really trying to educate people, and well beyond our own membership, and I mean we’ve got lots of members but we’ve got films that have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people, and not in an aggressive way and not in a lecturing way, but there are obviously some people, online maybe, who’ve been caught up in things, there’s obviously some – out there in Britain – there are some people with some very very objectionable views.”

She added that “I’m completely opposed to antisemitism as all forms of racism.”

Turning to Mr Corbyn, she urged that listeners “look at his track record …look at people from synagogues and temples who for years and years and years have engaged with Jeremy Corbyn.”

As to Labour MPs, she observed that while some had resigned from the Party, “obviously the overwhelming majority haven’t and they don’t believe these things” about Labour’s antisemitism.

Ms Parker has previously claimed that she could count the genuine instances of antisemitism among Momentum members “on the fingers of one hand,” has said that “we do the victims of sexism, of antisemitism, of racism, of transphobia, a great disservice if we weaponise and politicise these things,” and has vied to become Labour’s candidate in Enfield North, which was held by Joan Ryan MP who resigned from Labour in protest at antisemitism.

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.”

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Tory Party Chairman: “Jews will leave if Corbyn wins”

The Sunday Telegraph has run a front page story quoting James Cleverly, the Chairman of the Conservative Party, saying: “A number of Jewish friends of mine…have just said that if he [Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn] got anywhere near the levers of power they would be out of here. I never thought in my lifetime that I would hear that said.”

Mr Cleverly stated that people he has known for “much of my life” have said that they would leave the UK if Mr Corbyn became Prime Minister, saying that Jews saw the prospect of a Labour government as a “danger”.

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.”

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Retiring MP Dame Louise Ellman says Labour Party left her as she reveals she had useless meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss antisemitism

Dame Louise Ellman MP, who recently resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, has said that the Labour Party left her rather than vice versa, as she announced that she will not stand for re-election.

Dame Louise also revealed in an interview with the Jewish News that a few months ago Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn invited her to speak to him about antisemitism in the Party. Dame Louise recounted: “I didn’t hear from him when I resigned from Labour. But he did ask me to come and see him a few months ago. I went reluctantly: I didn’t particularly want to talk to him because I never thought there would be any point in it. But I went: I told him how I felt, that he wasn’t acting on antisemitism, that I was appalled at what was happening to the Labour Party, that the Jewish connection to the Labour Party had always been a very strong one, but that now very few mainstream Jewish people wanted to be connected with it.”

Mr Corbyn “listened, was very polite, but barely responded. Then he told me about a member of his party who was Jewish, who’d been there for many years, and felt very comfortable. To me, him telling me that in response only reinforced his lack of understanding – or lack of wanting to understand.”

Dame Louise said that she thought that Mr Corbyn had invited her and Dame Margaret Hodge, a fellow Jewish Labour MP who famously called Mr Corbyn “an antisemitic racist”, to see him as “an exercise, so that he could say he had spoken to MPs who expressed concerns about antisemitism. But I wasn’t interested in talking to him, I wanted something done. He kept repeating that he was against all forms of racism and antisemitism. So I said, well, what are you going to do differently? But I didn’t get any answers”.

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.”

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History will judge Labour MPs who campaign to put an antisemite in charge of our country

It is no secret that Labour’s Parliamentary Party has always been at odds with its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and his inner circle. Their differences have been numerous and varied, but over time it was clear that his cultivation of antisemitism in the Labour Party was prominent among them.

At first, Labour MPs tolerated these differences — some, like Luciana Berger, even initially sat in Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet. But as antisemitic incidents in the Party mounted, and with them the evidence of a corrupt disciplinary process and meddling by the Leader’s office, it quickly became clear that Labour under Mr Corbyn had become institutionally antisemitic.

The situation was so dire that the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into the Party following detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism. Among political parties, only the BNP had achieved this level of notoriety before.

Eventually, thirteen courageous MPs decided that enough was enough: Frank Field, Ivan Lewis, Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, Ann Coffey, Joan Ryan, Ian Austin, John Mann and Dame Louise Ellman. They recognised that remaining in Labour would signal their tacit endorsement of the institutional antisemitism prevailing in their Party and would mean campaigning for an antisemite to become Prime Minister — and they were not prepared to do that.

Three peers also resigned from the Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of principled MEPs, councillors and members.

The rest of the Parliamentary Party, however, has either expressly backed Mr Corbyn or tweeted empty words of sympathy for departing MPs or platitudinous solidarity with the Jewish community, but have not seen reason to resign.

These MPs found various rationales to continue to accept the leadership of an antisemite, ranging from protecting their careers to prioritising other policies over fighting racism. But prominent among these excuses was their increasingly unpersuasive claim that they were “staying to fight”. As one journalist has put it: “Those we once flattered as ‘moderates’ turned out to be so fanatically attached to Labour that no outrage or indignity could prise them away. Their rationale was that they were ‘staying to fight’, resisting antisemitism and extremism from within, and that the Labour Party’s soul could be saved. Behold their victories manifold.”

Those Labour MPs who have acquiesced to Mr Corbyn’s leadership will have to reckon with their choice to tolerate him. They are now being asked to campaign to put an antisemite in Downing Street, knowing full well that to do so would pose an “existential threat” to Jewish life in this country. 

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “After years of excuses, Labour MPs can no longer excuse the inexcusable. In the coming weeks, as they appear on doorsteps, before TV cameras and in radio studios, they will be campaigning for an institutionally antisemitic Party headed by an antisemitic leader, as the Jewish community sits in existential fear of the outcome. History will judge them.”

Over 57,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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SNP and Green Party leaders tell CAA they are ready to make Jeremy Corbyn PM despite antisemitism, Liberal Democrats ignore question

A few weeks ago, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to all the Opposition parties in Parliament (other than Labour) asking whether they would rule out making the antisemite, Jeremy Corbyn, Prime Minister.

The scenario could arise prior to an election or in the event of a hung Parliament after one if the Opposition parties agree to enter into a coalition led by Mr Corbyn.

The responses and lack of responses from Party leaders were disappointing. 

The Liberal Democrats, Change UK, the Democratic Unionist Party and Plaid Cymru did not respond to our letter at all.

Although the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, has repeatedly ruled out working with Mr Corbyn because of his views on Brexit and his handling of the antisemitism crisis, this position has been repeatedly weakened by the addendum that Mr Corbyn also could not command the requisite numbers in Parliament, which regrettably dilutes the principled anti-racism approach with political pragmatism, which is not reassuring.

The Rt Hon. Ian Blackford MP provided the SNP’s detailed response, in which he wrote: “I want to make it clear that the SNP abhors antisemitism in the strongest possible way. We believe that the recent political events show that now more than ever politicians should be responsible with their actions and use language with care. The SNP is absolutely opposed to racism and antisemitism in all its forms.”

However, the SNP did not rule out backing Mr Corbyn, albeit it noted our concerns: “Noting your concerns, I want to be clear that we do not have a preference for any particular individual and our support for any caretaker Prime Minister would only be for as long as is necessary to secure the extension, with an election held immediately afterwards. Our priority is to stop a No Deal Brexit…and remove the current government. The SNP would not offer support to any individual or party for any longer than is strictly necessary.”

Mr Blackford ended by saying: “I want to ensure you [sic] that the SNP will continue to support and engage with [the] Jewish community in Scotland and the UK.”

The Green Party’s response, from Caroline Lucas MP and the two leaders and deputy leader of the Green Party, was even more disappointing. The letter, which we appreciate receiving, began by reassuring us that “the Green Party deplores racism and antisemitism” and that “we very much agree with the importance of confronting antisemitism wherever it occurs, including in political parties, and reaffirm our commitment to standing up against racism. We would expect the leaders of all political parties to do the same and believe this is an issue above party politics.”

Nevertheless, the letter went on to clarify that although “there is the very real possibility that Jeremy Corbyn would not command a majority in Parliament to lead a caretaker government [h]owever, it is only right that he is given the opportunity to try to form a short term government…as he is official leader of the biggest opposition party. We would therefore support him in this, and would also support attempts to unite behind a different caretaker Prime Minister, with the express and only purpose of securing either a People’s Vote or, if Parliament does not back a confirmatory referendum, an early General Election.”

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is clear that for some Parties, it is a question of politics and not principle as to whether or not an antisemite resides in Downing Street. The Greens and the SNP were at least honest with us about their intentions, whereas the Liberal Democrats and others chose to ignore our inconvenient question altogether. The darkest chapters in the history of antisemitism took place under antisemitic leaders — leaders who were supported not always because of what they stood for but just as often because bystanders had different priorities and were unwilling to put up a fight. Zero tolerance for racism means taking a principled stand and recognising that no political objective legitimises supporting a racist leader.”

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.”

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CAA deplores responses from Jeremy Corbyn and other Labour MPs to Louise Ellman’s resignation from the Party

The resignation of Dame Louise Ellman from the Labour Party has elicited a variety of unsatisfactory responses from fellow Labour MPs.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed the resignation of yet another MP over the Party’s antisemitism with his usual platitude: “We do not tolerate antisemitism in any form whatsoever in our party or in any other part of society, just as resolutely as we are opposed to Islamophobia or any other form of racism. And I will hold that position until my dying day.”

This was despite, as another Labour MP, Wes Streeting, noted: “Labour’s leader knew what was happening to Louise…He was warned that another Jewish woman was being hounded out of the Parliamentary Party. He was asked to intervene. He chose not to. This is what institutional racism looks like.”

Harriet Harman, a former Deputy Labour Leader, said that Dame Louise’s resignation “should make every one of us in the Labour Party feel dismayed and ashamed”.

Former Shadow Home Secretary and leadership contender, Yvette Cooper, said: “Am just despairing at the way Louise Ellman has been treated and am sickened to the stomach at [the] response from some in our Party to her resignation. It shames us all that we’ve lost her.”

Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, appearing on BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, also described the resignation as “a really low moment” but refused to cast blame on Mr Corbyn or suggest any concrete action.

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the expressions of shame on the part of these MPs for remaining in an institutionally antisemitic Party, but we regret that none of them appears to have reconsidered their intentions to campaign in the next general election for Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister and for the Labour Party to win power.

Luciana Berger, another Jewish MP who quit the Labour Party over antisemitism and is now a Liberal Democrat, rightly dismissed their empty statements: “Please don’t tweet about how upsetting/awful it is that Dame Louise Ellman and I have left Labour if you’re in a position of leadership and [are] still in there.”

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

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Keir Starmer tells BBC’s Marr that he’s “100% behind Jeremy Corbyn” despite Labour leader’s antisemitism

Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, has insisted that he is “100% behind Jeremy Corbyn…I am working with Jeremy Corbyn to win the next general election.”

Sir Keir made the comments on BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show on 20th October.

When questioned on Dame Louise Ellman’s resignation from the Labour Party over antisemitism, Sir Keir conceded: “I think it’s a really low moment. A really low moment. And what I want to do is to redouble our efforts to make sure that Louise and others feel that the Labour Party is a party that they can return to. We’ve already done a lot of work on this. We need to do more. But the end destination for me is a Labour Party where those that have left because of this issue feel that they can return. That will be the judgment for me that will be the test of whether we’ve succeeded.”

When Mr Marr pointed out that Dame Louise laid the blame with Mr Corbyn and accused him of being a danger not just to the Labour Party but to the entire British Jewish community, Sir Keir rejected Dame Louise’s conclusions: “I don’t accept that. I don’t accept that. I do accept that as a Labour Party we have to root out antisemitism and we have to demonstrate to people like Louise that this is a Party that she can return to.”

On Mr Corbyn’s role in Labour’s antisemitism crisis, Sir Keir stated that “I personally don’t find that this personalising takes us very far. We have got an issue with antisemitism in the Party. We’ve got a problem that there is antisemitism. We’ve got a bigger problem that some people don’t acknowledge it. We’re working on that. We’ve got to do that collectively. The test will be whether those that have concerns as Louise did feel that they can return to the Labour Party. When they do, I will consider that we’ve succeeded.”

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is shameful that Sir Keir Starmer remains loyal to Jeremy Corbyn and will be campaigning to make him Prime Minister, despite an overwhelming majority of British Jews believing that Mr Corbyn is an antisemite and has cultivated antisemitism in the Labour Party. Labour has become institutionally antisemitic and is being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, but that is apparently not enough to make Sir Keir think again about his priorities. Louise Ellman rightly recognised that, come a general election, Labour MPs will have to decide whether they support installing an antisemite in Downing Street or not. Sir Keir has made his decision, and he should be ashamed.

“Sir Keir is not alone. Throughout the years of Mr Corbyn’s leadership, all senior members of the Labour Party, including John McDonnell and even such figures as Tom Watson and the highly critical Lord Falconer, have tried to make the argument that this is nothing to do with the Labour leadership, but rather its new members or its inadequate ‘processes’. Their collective comments are in themselves a contributing factor to the institutionalising of antisemitism in the Party, which they worsen rather than alleviate.”

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

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Just seven percent of Jews would consider voting for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour

A new poll suggests that as little as seven percent of the Jewish community would consider supporting the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the next general election.

This was an even lower figure than the thirteen percent support that the Party registered in a previous poll ahead of the 2017 general election.

The new poll, carried out by Survation for the JC, showed that 42 percent of Jews would consider voting for the Labour Party under new leadership.

Ian Austin MP, an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism who quit the Labour Party over antisemitism, said: “This poll shows the shameful extent to which the Jewish community –  which traditionally showed strong support for Labour – has been alienated by the racism which has poisoned the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Six times as many Jewish people would vote Labour with a different leader – so even if moderate MPs won’t get rid of him because it is the right thing to do, you’d have thought they would at least do it for electoral reasons.”

Survation questioned 766 self-identified Jewish residents aged over eighteen between 19th September and 14th October.

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

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Dame Louise Ellman MP quits Corbyn’s Labour, saying “We cannot allow him to do to the country what he has done to the Labour Party”

Louise Ellman MP has quit the Labour Party after 55 years of membership because she says that “Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to be Prime Minister” because he “spent three decades on the backbenches consorting with, and never confronting antisemites, Holocaust deniers and terrorists”, saying he has “attracted the support of too many antisemites”.

She said that she made her “agonising” decision because “The Labour Party is no longer a safe place for Jews and Jeremy Corbyn must bear responsibility for this.” She warned: “We cannot allow him to do to the country what he has done to the Labour Party.”

Dame Louise has faced years of abuse from Mr Corbyn’s faction of the Labour Party, and from Mr Corbyn himself. Campaign Against Antisemitism noted in our initial correspondence with the Equality and Human Rights Commission that Mr Corbyn had publicly backed his brother’s assertion that Dame Louise was engaging in a politically motivated attack by complaining of antisemitism. Last week Dame Louise, who is Jewish, had been due to face a deselection debate by her local Labour Party during Yom Kippur, one of the most solemn days of the Jewish calendar.

Dame Louise now joins twelve MPs and three peers who have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism in recent months, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members. She has confirmed that she will not join another political party and hopes that one day under different leadership she will feel able to rejoin Labour.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Many of us have marvelled that Dame Louise has remained in the Labour Party for so long, even as it came under investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission at our behest. However, an imminent general election that raises the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister has forced her to make the only moral choice possible, one which her colleagues still refuse to face.”

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.

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

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“Sanctimonious hypocrite” Corbyn told to “sort your own house out first” before calling out racism in football

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of being a “sanctimonious hypocrite” after he called on UEFA to “do far more to tackle this kind of abuse”. Mr Corbyn made the comments following England’s match against Bulgaria on 14th October, which was interrupted twice as a far-right contingent of Bulgarian fans made Nazi salutes and chanted horrific racist abuse at minority English players.

Ian Austin MP, who quit the Labour Party over antisemitism and is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, called out Mr Corbyn for daring to demand action by others on racism while presiding over antisemitism in his own Party. Mr Austin said that “someone who has seen the Labour Party poisoned by racism” under Mr Corbyn was in “no place to say this”, adding that Mr Corbyn should “sort your own house out first, you sanctimonious hypocrite.”

In a similar display of hypocrisy last week, Mr Corbyn was pictured with fellow Labour Party frontbencher, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Emily Thornberry, at a Show Racism the Red Card (SRRC) panel at Arsenal. SRRC describes itself as an anti-racism educational charity and appears to focus on discrimination and hate towards Black and Asian communities in the UK. It does not appear to offer resources on antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism supports all anti-racism efforts, but regrets that SRRC chose to fete an antisemitic leader of an institutionally antisemitic party that is under investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

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

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

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Labour’s Rosh Hashanah video features Jeremy Corbyn in conversation with Jew who said Kaddish for Hamas terrorists

Jeremy Corbyn’s Rosh Hashanah message, traditionally directed to the Jewish community, features the Labour leader in conversation with a Jewish activist who was one of several young Jews who recited the traditional Jewish memorial prayer, known as Kaddish, for those killed on the Gaza border in Spring 2018 protests.

Despite Hamas’ confirmation that some 50 of the 62 fatalities were their own operatives, the activists read out all of the names of those killed. Consequently, the ceremony, which took place in May 2018 in Parliament Square, caused significant controversy and elicited opprobrium from the mainstream Jewish community.

The video, which appropriates the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah and the custom of eating apples and honey to signify a sweet new year ahead in order to promote Labour’s environmental policies, was also widely panned for poor taste.

Jon Lansman, the prominent pro-Corbyn Momentum activist who is himself Jewish, is also seen in the video.

Mr Corbyn is notorious for, among other controversies, describing Hamas terrorists as “friends”, but the decision to feature this activist so prominently in his Rosh Hashanah message shows that only Jews on the fringes of communal life are prepared to associate with the Labour leader, and conversely it also shows that the only Jews with whom Mr Corbyn is apparently prepared to associate are precisely those who hold opinions far outside of the Jewish mainstream and in accordance with his own extreme views.

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

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

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Campaign Against Antisemitism denounces SNP over reports it is open to backing Jeremy Corbyn as PM

It is being reported that the Scottish National Party (SNP) “has come round to the idea that Jeremy Corbyn may shortly have to become temporary caretaker prime minister.”

As the second largest opposition party in Parliament, the SNP yields considerable influence in determining who, if anyone, may succeed the sitting Prime Minister in the event of his resignation or a successful vote of no confidence.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has always been clear that Mr Corbyn’s record over the course of his political career and as leader of the Labour Party renders him entirely unfit to hold public office, and we, along with 85% of the Jewish community, have reached the conclusion that he is an antisemite. Under his leadership, the Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic and is now under investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, at the behest of Campaign Against Antisemitism. A Corbyn-led Government, however temporary, poses an existential threat to British Jewry.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, released the following statement: “With Jews already fearing for their future in Britain, every decent person should be horrified by reports that the SNP is preparing to install a racist as Prime Minister. Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite under whose leadership the Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic. There is no situation of national crisis that can only be resolved by an anti-Jewish bigot. SNP MPs have spent considerable time this week complaining about divisive language but when it comes down to it they are abject hypocrites if they are content to betray British Jews and install an antisemitic extremist as Prime Minister in order to meet their political objectives.”

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Labour’s Dame Louise Ellman says she “understands” why Jews “would seriously consider” leaving UK if Corbyn becomes PM

The veteran Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman, who is Jewish, delivered a powerful attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over his record on antisemitism at a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) reception the sidelines of the Labour Party Conference. LFI had opted not to host a stand at the Conference for fear of abuse to those manning the stand.

In her speech, Dame Louise condemned Mr Corbyn as someone “who would…label a propagator of the blood libel a ‘very honoured citizen’ and would peddle and endorse vile, trope-laden conspiracy theories,” and remarked, in a thinly-disguised reference to Mr Corbyn, that “too many claim to abhor racism ‘in all its forms’, while ignoring the racism against Jews which stalks party meetings, social media and the highest institutions of the party.”

She went on to ask: “what does it say about Jeremy Corbyn that he looks at a grossly antisemitic mural and apparently cannot see how grotesque and offensive it is; that he was active in an antisemitic Facebook group whose members discussed reading Mein Kampf, used the terms ‘ZioNazi’ and ‘JewNazi’ and discussed whether the BBC was controlled by Zionists, but, again, never seemed to see any of this; and that he was willing to take the pay of Press TV, the mouthpiece of a regime which denies the Holocaust and threatens to annihilate Israel — and even now refuses to apologise for having done so.

“What does it tell us about Jeremy Corbyn that he can describe the words of Hamas terrorists as ‘fascinating and electrifying’? Men who blew up families as they sat enjoying a meal in a pizza restaurant. Men who murdered Israeli teenagers as they excitedly waited to enter a club on a night out with friends. Men who butchered Holocaust survivors as they shared a Passover Seder.

“And what are we left to think when Jeremy Corbyn finds the time to lay wreaths at the graves of those who masterminded the torture and murder of Israeli athletes at Munich, but repeatedly refuses invitations to visit Yad Vashem — the museum and monument to the greatest crime in human history?”

Dame Louise expressed astonishment at the idea that the Labour Party could “find itself the object of an investigation by one of Labour’s proudest creations, the Equality and Human Rights Commission.” She was referencing the full statutory investigation launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 28th May, following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Dame Louise also said, “I never believed we would see the day when many British Jews would so fear our leader, that they would seriously consider leaving the country if he entered Downing Street,” before insisting that “I not only understand those fears. I share those fears.”

“Yesterday,” she added, “on the conference floor, we saw a standing ovation given to a delegate who denied there was any antisemitism in the Labour Party. Not only that but a motion supporting boycotts was passed for the first time in Labour history. Let us be clear about what this means, the only country the Labour party calls to boycott is the world’s only Jewish state.”

“This,” Dame Louise lamented, “is not the party I joined.”

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

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

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Tom Watson planned to attack Jeremy Corbyn’s record on antisemitism in axed Conference speech

The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, has disclosed that he was intending to attack Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s record on antisemitism in his Labour Party Conference speech, before it was cancelled due to events in Westminster.

Alluding to Mr Corbyn’s empty statements on the antisemitism crisis engulfing the Party, Mr Watson said: “In my speech I was going to say that it is not just about being anti-racist, even if you mean it. It’s no good just condemning something — it’s about actually doing something about it.”

Mr Watson went on to condemn the “sickening intimidation” of Jewish delegates at the Conference and the antisemitic banner positioned outside (which police eventually removed), and lamented that Labour had “a very long way to go” before it could restore “anything near trust with the Jewish community.”

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

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

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Conservative MP Sir Charles Walker tells BBC’s Politics Live that Corbyn has a problem with Jews and Commons will never put him in power

Erupting on BBC’s Politics Live programme, the Conservative MP Sir Charles Walker passionately insisted that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would not be appointed as Prime Minister by the MPs in the House of Commons forming a coalition headed by him.

“The House of Commons will never put Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10, that will never happen. Ever,” he asserted, going on to clarify: “It will never happen. Because we have brands as political parties. And you know why we’ll never put him there: because he has a fundamental problem with parts of our community who happen to be Jewish. And we will not put him in Number 10. It will never ever happen in this country. And Labour won’t let it happen either. And you know it. Ever.”

Sir Charles’ blunt remarks are a refreshing reminder of how seriously antisemitism is taken outside of the Labour Party.

Equally noteworthy was the revealing reaction from the Labour MP on the in-studio panel, Lisa Nandy, who did not dispute Sir Charles’ assessment of Mr Corbyn and his antisemitism, meekly mentioning only that it will be up to the people to determine Mr Corbyn’s political fate.

Ms Nandy also made an ambiguous remark about “tribal loyalties”, which, given her previous condemnations of Labour antisemitism, we hope was directed at political parties rather than, disgracefully, at the Jewish community. Nevertheless we would urge MPs to be careful in the language that they select so that misunderstandings do not arise.

Sir Charles finished by saying of Mr Corbyn that “he is not [a] fit or proper person to be in Number 10 with the views that he holds.”

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

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

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Rachel Riley cites Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Corbyn petition on Peston

The TV personality and activist, Rachel Riley, appeared on ITV’s Peston on Thursday and observed that over 55,000 people have signed Campaign Against Antisemitism’s petition denouncing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Ms Riley was discussing her campaign to encourage users of social media not to engage with trolls, noting that when she began speaking out about antisemitism she became “subject to racist abuse”. Challenged by host Robert Peston when she labelled Mr Corbyn an “antisemite”, Ms Riley cited the petition, as well as a 2018 poll that showed that over 85% of British Jews regard the Labour leader as antisemitic.

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

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Chuka Umunna blasts Corbyn on antisemitism and failing to support the ban on Hizballah

In a barnstorming speech at the Liberal Democrats’ party conference, Chuka Umunna, an MP who left Labour for reasons including antisemitism and recently joined the Liberal Democrats, shared his thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn.

“The Labour Party likes to think of itself as a champion of liberal values at home and abroad,” Mr Umunna said, before lamenting that Labour is in fact no longer “the party of [Clement] Atlee and [Ernest] Bevin: this is Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.”

Mr Umunna warned Labour that “you cannot be a champion of liberalism if you are currently subject to a formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional racism against Jewish people.” He was referencing the full statutory investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which was launched on 28th May following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Mr Umunna went on to criticise Mr Corbyn for “lauding authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Iran [and] failing to support the proscription of Hizballah as a terrorist organisation.” Hizballah was banned in the UK earlier this year following years of campaigning by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, used the occasion of her party’s conference to rule out once more the possibility of backing a government led by Mr Corbyn after a general election, including not only a formal coalition but even a more informal arrangement, such a confidence-and-supply agreement. She accused Mr Corbyn of having “failed to tackle antisemitism in his own party”, adding that he is “totally, totally failing” to eliminate antisemitism from Labour.

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

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

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Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson says it’s “impossible” for her to work with Corbyn “in any sort of arrangement” due to antisemitism

The leader of the Liberal Democrats has assured her party’s newest MP that it would be “impossible” for her to work with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, “in any sort of arrangement.”

Jo Swinson reportedly made the pledge to Luciana Berger, saying she “would not enter any coalition with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister” or support any government led by him in any way, in part due to Mr Corbyn’s failure to address antisemitism in his party.

Ms Berger left the Labour Party earlier this year over antisemitism, and citing her refusal to be complicit in a Labour election victory that might put Mr Corbyn in Downing Street. She has now joined the Liberal Democrats.

The assurance from Ms Swinson echoes her earlier pledge during her party leadership campaign not to prop up a Corbyn-led government, in part due to his handling of antisemitism within the Labour Party. Delivering her promise to Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, Ms Swinson explained that, in addition to their disagreement on political questions, “Corbyn[’s]…inability, at best, to act on antisemitism within his party would make it impossible for me to work with him on a personal level in any sort of arrangement.”

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

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

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Ian Austin MP launches blistering attack on “extremist” Corbyn for “working with and defending antisemites”, joined by Ivan Lewis MP

Ian Austin MP, who resigned from Labour in protest at antisemitism within the Party earlier this year, delivered a passionate indictment of the Labour leadership in a speech in Parliament yesterday, branding Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party’s leadership “extremists”.

Standing amongst Labour MPs on the opposition benches, Mr Austin said: “I left the Labour party to shine a spotlight on the disgrace it’s become under his [Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s] leadership…I regard myself as proper, decent traditional Labour, not like the extremists who have taken over this Party and are dragging it into the mud…These are people [Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell] who spent their entire time in politics working with [and] defending all sorts of extremists, and in some cases terrorists and antisemites…They always back the wrong side, whether it’s the IRA, Hamas and Hizballah, whom they describe as ‘friends’.”

As Labour MPs heckled him and told him to stop sitting with them, Mr Austin continued: “No previous Labour leadership would have allowed a Party with a proud history of fighting racial prejudice to have been poisoned by racism, which is what’s happened under these people — racism against Jewish people, to the extent that members have been arrested on suspicion of racial hatred, that the Party itself has become the first in history to be investigated under equalities laws by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. These people, and the people around them, are a million miles away from the traditional, mainstream, decent politics of the Labour Party. They have poisoned what was once a great party with extremism. They cannot be trusted with the institutions that underpin our democracy. They are completely unfit to lead the Labour Party, let alone our country.”

Mr Austin was joined by another former Labour MP, Ivan Lewis, who also resigned the Labour Party whip over antisemitism. Mr Lewis added his condemnation of Mr Corbyn, saying: “He does not have the leadership skills required at a time of so many challenges facing our country, and his leadership has led to the party of anti-racism and equality becoming the party of institutionalised antisemitism, so much so that a majority of Jews in this country feel that they would not be safe in the event of his becoming Prime Minister.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Mr Austin, who is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, and Mr Lewis, for their righteous condemnation of the Labour leadership, which now presides over an institutionally antisemitic party. The Labour Party cannot be a force for good whilst it is in the hands of Mr Corbyn and those around him.

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

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

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

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John Mann quits as Labour MP after 18 years, accusing Corbyn of giving “green light to the antisemites”

Veteran Labour MP John Mann has announced that he is quitting as a Labour MP in disgust over antisemitism in the Party. He will not stand for reelection to the House of Commons at the next election after 18 years on the Labour benches as the MP for Bassetlaw. Instead, he will take up a full-time post as an adviser on antisemitism to the Government.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Mann was scathing about the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, saying: “The party will not survive the erosion of its principles and its soul by this racist infiltration. Corbyn has given the green light to the antisemites and having done so has sat there and done nothing to turn that round.” On that basis, he said that Mr Corbyn is not “appropriate to be Prime Minister”.

He added: “Every time I go into a meeting with a group of Jewish people, I wince when they raise the issue of the Labour Party and Corbyn. It is impossible to overstate the anger that I have about that…He has not just hijacked my political party; he has hijacked its soul and its ethics. I will never forgive him for that.”

Mr Mann once claimed that Campaign Against Antisemitism “sensationalised” antisemitism when we first began to sound the alarm that British Jews were questioning their future in the UK, but as he has become increasingly exposed to the problem, he has come to accept that we were right, telling the Sunday Times: “The mass growth of antisemitism is driving many Jewish people to question whether they have a future in this country. There are people I have known for most of my life who are leaving the country because they don’t think this is a safe haven for them. People don’t talk about it but there is a feeling that people didn’t flee fast enough before and they don’t want to take any risks. This is the country that more than any other stood up to the Nazis, so the idea that it isn’t a safe haven for Jewish people contradicts everything from the war effort.”

In his new role based at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Mr Mann says that he will “hold internet companies, universities and others better to account and every single political party bar none”. He explained: “My one aim in this role is to turn around that situation so that Jewish teenagers know that their future is safe in this country if they wish it to be, and that there will be no impingement in any way on them and their freedoms — be it the universities they chose, the job they chose to go into, where they live, what they wear or how they live, which is a big bold objective.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Mr Mann for his longstanding support for the Jewish community and outspoken stance against antisemitism in the Labour Party. It shames the Labour Party that one of its longstanding MPs is now leaving the House of Commons, in addition to the eleven MPs and three peers who have resigned from the Party over antisemitism in recent months, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

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.

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

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Jeremy Corbyn says Labour peer who signed advertisement protesting Labour antisemitism “lowered himself”

Jeremy Corbyn has responded to a critical advertisement by accusing one of the signatories of having “lowered himself”.

Last month, 67 Labour peers took out a full-page advertisement in the The Guardian accusing Mr Corbyn of having “failed the test of leadership” over his handling of antisemitism. The advertisement stated: “The Labour Party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (*except, it seems, Jews). This is your legacy, Mr Corbyn.”

Asked by a local Cumbrian newspaper about the endorsement of the advertisement by Lord Liddle, who is also a local councillor in the area, Mr Corbyn said: “I’m very sorry that he lowered himself by putting his name to that advertisement.”

The Labour leader went on to say that “Our party is big, our party is open, our party is diverse — there is no place whatsoever for antisemitism, xenophobia or any other form of racism, not just in my party but in our society. That kind of thing only divides people and weakens us all as a community. Our strength is our diversity.”

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

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

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The emperor has no clothes: more hand-wringing and statements from the Shadow Cabinet will not count as action

Tomorrow, Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet will meet in “emergency” session, more than a week after the BBC’s excellent Panorama documentary was broadcast into Britain’s homes, telling the heartbreaking insiders’ account of antisemitism in the Labour Party.

For those who have been paying close attention to the antisemitism crisis in Labour that has been unfolding since Mr Corbyn was elected to lead the Party four years ago, there were few new facts in the Panorama documentary. However, for the first time, a string of loyal Labour members at the very centre of the Party’s disciplinary process, recounted the full detail of what they have seen: those controlling the levers of power within the Party have ridden roughshod over both the Party’s own regulations and its beleaguered staff, to protect antisemites from proper disciplinary action.

Whilst the whistleblowers’ account will have left viewers feeling deeply upset and enraged by the actions of the Party’s leadership, the Party’s response to the documentary was remorseless. The Party’s leadership removed any doubt as to the sincerity of its introspection by circling its wagons: it immediately used legal threats, sackings and vitriol against those who have criticised it. Labour’s lashing out has only served to underline that the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party has now institutionalised its leader’s racism. 

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long held a clear position:

  • Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite who is unfit to hold any public office;
  • Under his leadership, the Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic;
  • A Corbyn-led government would pose an existential threat to British Jewry;
  • Labour’s antisemitism crisis cannot be solved by those who created it; and
  • The Labour Party cannot be a force for good whilst it is in Jeremy Corbyn’s grip.

We have been calling out the institutional nature of the Party’s antisemitism, as well as the antisemitism of its leader, for years now. This culminated in the Equality and Human Rights Commission agreeing to open a full statutory investigation into unlawful antisemitism within the Party, at our request. However, the Panorama documentary, featuring the voices of young employees so plainly distressed by what they had experienced, laid bare for a mass audience how Mr Corbyn, and his allies and advisers, have interfered in disciplinary processes in order to keep antisemites within the Party.

Now, the entire viewing public knows what the Jewish community and many others have long claimed: from insider testimony, they have seen that the members, employees and officers of the Labour Party almost certainly have known for some time that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite, and that his Party is institutionally antisemitic. The collusion and torrent of denials that we now see convince nobody: they are nothing short of complicity in covering for an antisemite.

Finally it is clear for all to see: the emperor has no clothes.

As though awoken from a spell, some of the institutions within the orbit of the Party — such as Labour members of the House of the Lords, the GMB Union, staff at the membership department in Newcastle, and even some MPs — have responded to the documentary as one would have expected them to have done years ago: by vehemently calling out the attempts to aid antisemites within the Party and the ill-treatment of staff who were simply trying to do their jobs to prevent illegal discrimination. These actions — welcome though they are — are merely symbolic. The House of Lords, for example, cannot force change.

The stakes could not be higher. We scarcely need to use our imaginations to see how Britain might look for Jews were it governed by the same people and forces as those who have been governing the Labour Party since 2015. Why should we believe that civil servants and officials attempting to apply the law against antisemites would face a different fate than Labour staffers and officials who were sidelined, forced to take sick leave, disciplined, threatened with legal action, sacked or driven to suicidal thoughts because they dared to call out antisemitism? In this context, it is no surprise that a recent survey showed that 40% of British Jews would consider leaving this country in the event that Jeremy Corbyn was elected Prime Minister. 

When the Shadow Cabinet meets tomorrow to engage yet again in a show of being seen to object to the racism that has overcome their Labour Party, if history is a guide, then nothing of significance will result. Political fig leaves might be applied, resolutions may be recommended to Party conference months hence, and worthy statements about speeding up processes issued, but the whole country now knows that the emperor is stark naked: Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite, and his Party is infested with antisemitism. The hand-wringing and statements we have seen and heard so many times over the past four years do not count as meaningful action.

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Liberal Democrats leadership hopefuls cite antisemitism as reason not to back Corbyn government

Liberal Democrats leadership rivals, Jo Swinson and Sir Ed Davey, have said that they would not support a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn.

Both candidates criticised Mr Corbyn over antisemitism during an interview on 3rd July on BBC Radio 4’s World at One, with Ms Swinson noting that “Jeremy Corbyn is a Brexiteer, but he has also failed to deal with antisemitism in the Labour Party.” Sir Ed agreed with her, noting “the way Corbyn’s failed on antisemitism.”

In a subsequent interview with Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, Sir Ed instead that the Liberal Democrats “have and must always have zero tolerance for antisemitism,” while Ms Swinson made the following pledge: “Corbyn is a Brexiteer which makes coalition impossible and undesirable. His inability, at best, to act on antisemitism within his party would make it impossible for me to work with him on a personal level in any sort of arrangement.”

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67 Labour peers take out advertisement saying Jeremy Corbyn “failed the test of leadership” over his handling of antisemitism

In an unprecedented step, 67 Labour peers have taken out a full-page advertisement in The Guardian today accusing Jeremy Corbyn of having “failed the test of leadership” over his handling of antisemitism.

The signatories represent over a third of Labour’s members in the House of Lords and include over a dozen former ministers.

The advertisement states: “The Labour Party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (*except, it seems, Jews). This is your legacy, Mr Corbyn.”

The signatories charged that: “Under your leadership, Labour is no longer a safe place for all members and supporters, whatever their ethnicity or faith. Thousands have resigned and thousands more feel unable to attend party meetings because of the toxic culture you have allowed to divide our movement.”

They added: “We are not asking if you are an antisemite. We are saying you are accountable as leader for allowing antisemitism to grow in our party and presiding over the most shaming period in Labour’s history.”

The advertisement concluded: “You have failed to defend our party’s anti-racist values. You have therefore failed the test of leadership.”

This follows the exposé last week on the BBC’s flagship investigative documentary programme, Panorama, in which former Labour Party employees spoke out publicly to reveal Mr Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism.

In a lengthy response to the advertisement, a Labour Party spokesman told The Guardian that Labour was taking decisive action against antisemitism “regardless of false and misleading claims about the party by those hostile to Jeremy Corbyn’s politics.”

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, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members. Last week, three Labour peers resigned the whip over antisemitism.

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

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Heather Mendick who said antisemitism claims have been “weaponised” appointed by Labour to rebuild relationship with Jewish community

Heather Mendick, who said that antisemitism claims have been “weaponised”, has been appointed by the Labour Party to rebuild its relationship with the Jewish community.

This is yet another show of disdain for the Jewish community by the Labour Party and comes just days after BBC Panorama’s exposé of Jeremy Corbyn’s meddling in antisemitism cases.

According to the Daily Mail, Ms Mendick’s liaison role will involve working in Mr Corbyn’s office one day a week.

Ms Mendick, who is a member of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn campaign group, and works as a research consultant and Secretary of Hackney South Labour Party, is clearly unfit for such a role.

She said that antisemitism claims have been “weaponised” and criticised calls for Labour to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism. She also joined disgraced MP Chris Williamson on his “Democracy Roadshow” and expressed “solidarity” for Jenny Manson, a member of the sham Jewish Voice For Labour (JVL), an antisemitism denial group. She even signed a letter in The Guardian claiming that Mr Corbyn is a “formidable” opponent of antisemitism after Luciana Berger resigned from Labour over “institutional antisemitism.”

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, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

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

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BBC Panorama’s exposé of Jeremy Corbyn’s meddling in antisemitism cases is further evidence that he is racist and unfit for office

Former Labour Party employees have spoken out publicly on the BBC’s flagship investigative documentary programme, Panorama, to reveal Jeremy Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism.

The documentary lays bare the scale of the interference by agents of Mr Corbyn in the process. The programme is peppered with unconvincing denials from Labour’s press team.

The programme explains how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to independently run Labour’s disciplinary process, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides.

The programme shows how brazen Mr Corbyn’s staff were in their efforts to subvert due process.

Early in the Party’s antisemitism crisis, Seumas Milne, often referred to as the ‘brain’ behind Mr Corbyn, is described as laughing by Mike Creighton, who led the Party’s disciplinary team, when Mr Creighton suggested means of improving the Party’s response to antisemitism. In a statement, Labour claimed Mr Creighton was lying.

However during the programme, one staffer after another described how gradually Mr Corbyn’s agents increased their interference in the disciplinary process. According to the former staffers’ testimony and e-mails shown to Panorama, Mr Corbyn’s team and his ally, General Secretary Jennie Formby, intervened to reduce the punishment for antisemites, and even to try to alter the composition of a disciplinary panel of the Party’s National Constitutional Committee.

One staffer described how a member of staff in Mr Corbyn’s office said that there was a “Jewish conspiracy” against Ken Livingstone, after Mr Livingstone said that Hitler was “supporting Zionism”. Another official said that a new leader of the disciplinary team installed by allies of Mr Corbyn claimed that there was no problem with an image shared by a Labour member from a far-right website depicting an alien parasite emblazoned with a Star of David smothering the Statue of Liberty.

Among the revelations made by former staff are that Mr Corbyn’s office was “angry and obstructive” when it came to antisemitism; that officials brought in by Ms Formby “overruled” disciplinary decisions and “downgraded” punishments to a “slap on the wrist”; that Mr Corbyn’s office demanded that documentation related to antisemitism complaints be brought to his House of Commons office for his aides to review; and that Jennie Formby stated her intention to alter the composition of a panel hearing the case of Jackie Walker.

The programme showed how impartial professional staff were sidelined and driven out as Mr Corbyn’s outriders led the Party into a state of institutional antisemitism.

The former officials said that they were driven to suicidal thoughts, and mental breakdowns as a result. Some of them had to break legally-binding agreements that they had signed with the Labour Party in order to speak to Panorama. One former official said that she would not: “be able to live with myself unless I speak up about the horrendous things that I know have been happening.”

In the course of the documentary, as one Jewish Labour member after another described the racism they faced, the former Labour officials said that they could not rule out the idea that Mr Corbyn himself is an antisemite, and stated that if Labour’s current rules were applied to him regarding his actions and statements before his elevation to leader, that he would be expelled from the Party.

Inflexible and unbending in their thinking, Mr Corbyn and his team are amongst the last adherents of discredited antisemitic myths generated in the postwar Soviet Union, the ‘anti-Imperialist’ ideas of Hobson, and the ‘Jewish Question’ of early Marxism, ideas that the formerly Social Democratic Labour Party thought it had left behind, but failed to purge from its “broad church”. Pickled in ancient racism, they are immune to the complaints of antisemitism that the British Jewish Community has experienced. Within this inner group, under Mr Corbyn’s command, it is no wonder that anti-Jewish racism is enabled and encouraged, allowing conspiracy theories and bigotry about Jews to flourish.

Campaign Against Antisemitism declared the Labour Party to be “institutionally antisemitic” back in 2016, followed by other Jewish community charities two years later.

Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted complaints to Labour itself calling for Jeremy Corbyn to be disciplined, under the same rules that have seen Jackie Walker expelled and Chris Williamson suspended, rules that Mr Corbyn has himself similarly breached.

We were also the first to rightly call Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite, a term used again by the Party’s former General Secretary, Lord Triesman, when resigning the Labour whip in disgust yesterday.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s correct diagnosis of Labour’s racist sickness was subsequently vindicated when the Equality and Human Rights Commission agreed to act on our referral and launch a full statutory investigation into antisemitism within the Party following our submission of evidence to them.

Despite the Labour Party finding itself in the company only of the fascist British National Party in being subject to such an investigation, it has failed to alter its behaviour — bearing witness, as if it were needed, to its ingrained institutional blindness to the hatred of Jews among its own members and officers.

Since then, figures such as their own former Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer — initially asked by the party to investigate the matter for them — have been publicly aghast at the Party’s failure to deal promptly and clearly with extreme cases that have emerged since the investigation was announced.

In response to the Panorama broadcast, Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Former Labour officials, have been compelled by their conscience to speak out, revealing the scale of the duplicity behind Labour’s failure to address the Party’s antisemitism crisis. Whilst claiming to act against Jew hatred, Jeremy Corbyn’s agents and allies have carefully protected antisemites.

“It was heartbreaking to watch the testimony of honourable lifelong Labour officials contemplating suicide and suffering breakdowns because of the actions of Mr Corbyn and his team. This testimony will add significant weight to the statutory investigation that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is undertaking following our referral.

“The charade of Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-racist activist has been blown apart. Mr Corbyn’s support for antisemites and his team’s protection of antisemites demonstrate that Mr Corbyn himself is an antisemite who is unfit to hold any public office, including that of Leader of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition. For as long as the Labour Party is in Jeremy Corbyn’s grip, it cannot be a force for good.”

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Pro-Corbyn activists post near-identical mocking tweets claiming they are the child of a Holocaust survivor and that Jeremy Corbyn is not antisemitic

Pro-Corbyn activists have reportedly posted near-identical mocking tweets claiming that they are the child of a Holocaust survivor and that Jeremy Corbyn is not antisemitic.

The tweets from several accounts, which appear to be cut and pasted, have made the same claims: that their mother “lost 39 members of her family in the camps” and they have “lectured at Auschwitz” on Holocaust or genocide prevention.

It has been uncovered that these tweets use wording that is nearly identical to an original post from the London-based South African film-maker, author and former politician, Andrew Feinstein.

When the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, called Mr Corbyn an antisemite earlier this month, Mr Feinstein responded in a tweet: “As a Jew, the son of a Holocaust survivor who lost 39 members of her family in the camps & someone who has lectured at Auschwitz on Holocaust prevention, I find your comment deeply repugnant & offensive to the memory of all who died in the Shoah.”

Mr Feinstein posted a similar tweet later in June adding: “I can state unequivocally that Jeremy Corbyn is not an antisemite!”

It has also been revealed that one of the accounts copying Mr Feinstein’s message, recently posted polls asking followers whether Russians or Zionists control the US government and whether the Holocaust was a hoax.

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, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

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

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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair calls Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has called Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite in an interview at a panel event at Bar Ilan University in Israel.

Mr Blair said: “To be frank, this antisemitism row, it’s a shameful thing.” When asked if he believed Corbyn himself was antisemitic, he said yes, explaining: “Some of the remarks are not explicable in any other way, I’m afraid, and that is sad.”

When the question was posed if Mr Corbyn thinks that he is an antisemite, he replied: “No, he doesn’t think he is at all.”

In May, Mr Blair said that the the “poison” of antisemitism has returned in a rebuke of Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party. In powerful comments in a video in support of the new National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, Mr Blair said that: “Antisemitism and hate did not end in 1945. Unfortunately today some of this poison is back from the political fringe to parts of the political mainstream.”

Last Tuesday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

At the Bar Ilan University event, Mr Blair lamented that: “When I established [the EHRC], I never dreamed it would be investigating the Labour Party.”

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

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

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Corbyn still campaigns with Lisa Forbes, Labour’s candidate in Peterborough by-election, after learning she “enjoyed reading” comments under post claiming ISIS was created by Mossad

Jeremy Corbyn has continued to campaign with Lisa Forbes, Labour’s candidate in the Peterborough by-election, even after learning that she liked a Facebook post that said that Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda” and commented that she “enjoyed reading” comments beneath a post claiming that ISIS and other extremists were created and funded by the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.

When approached by the Peterborough Telegraph, she apologised and pledged to “deepen my understanding of antisemitism so I can act as an ally, challenging antisemitism wherever it occurs.”

Ms Forbes was joined by Jeremy Corbyn for campaigning on Saturday ahead of the by-election. Mr Corbyn refused to answer a journalist’s question if Pete Willsman will be expelled from Labour after he was suspended for claiming in a recording that the “Israeli embassy” and an “agent” are “behind all this antisemitism against Jeremy.”

This latest revelation in the Labour antisemitic crisis was uncovered by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

It is beyond disturbing that Ms Forbes has liked and commented positively on posts espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, and that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party continue to endorse her nonetheless, with no sign of even the façade of disciplinary proceedings. We will refer this incident to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for consideration during their statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Ms Forbes was a signatory to an open letter in August last year to the Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) urging them not to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism in full.

Her co-signatories to the letter included Asa Winstanley and Rebecca Massey. Mr Winstanley called the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) an “Israeli Embassy proxy” and was reportedly suspended from Labour in March, pending an investigation. Ms Massey tweeted that “Israel has Tory & Labour parties under control.”

It also emerged that Ms Forbes posted in the Peterborough Palestine Solidarity Campaign Facebook group, a forum where one participant wrote about “Zionist rats” and another said that “Israel spends a fortune perverting our democracy.”

On Tuesday, the 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, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

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

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Just 19% of British voters believe Labour and Corbyn are not antisemitic as over 60% condemn Corbyn’s incompetence and dishonesty on issue

A YouGov survey has found that only 19% of British voters say that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are not antisemitic.

Just 18 percent of voters say that the Labour Party does not have a problem with antisemitism, while 50 percent think that it does.

The polling shows that in the past year, approximately a further 5% of the public has lost confidence in Mr Corbyn over this matter, reducing those who support him on this issue to less than 20% of the population.

Some of the other key findings for all voters are that:

  • 80 percent say that they had seen either a little or a lot of news coverage about antisemitism in the Labour Party. Campaign Against Antisemitism has been at the forefront of exposing antisemitism in the Party in the national media.
  • 36 percent of all British voters say that Mr Corbyn is antisemitic and 28 percent say that the Labour Party is antisemitic. Only 19 percent say that neither are antisemitic.
  • 65 percent believe that Mr Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism accusations has been incompetent while only 16 per cent think that he has been competent.
  • 60 percent say that Mr Corbyn has been neither honest nor transparent in responding to accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, with only 18 percent thinking that he has been honest and transparent.
  • Only 27 percent agree that Labour MPs who are concerned about antisemitism in the Party should remain in the Party nonetheless. So far, just eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism. They have been joined by numerous councillors and members.

YouGov polled a very large sample of 5,180 British adults for the JC between 14th and 17th May for the survey.

In signs that views on antisemitism in politics have become increasingly biased, some of the responses from Labour Party voters are particularly disturbing and revealing:

  • Merely 8 percent say that Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party are antisemitic while 39 percent say that neither are antisemitic.
  • 37 percent say that Mr Corbyn has been honest and transparent in responding to accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, while 50 percent say that he has not been honest and transparent.
  • Only 12 percent think that Mr Corbyn is most to blame for the Labour’s antisemitism crisis, with 21 percent blaming Labour’s political opponents.
  • Just 20 percent think that the row over allegations of antisemitism within Labour has increased the amount of hostility Jewish people in Britain experience while 36 percent say that it has not made any difference to the level of hostility.

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”.

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Jeremy Corbyn defended “salient points” which were “overlooked” in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech vowing to “wipe Israel off the map” without condemning it

It has emerged that Jeremy Corbyn authored an article in which he defended “salient points” which he felt were “overlooked” in former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech vowing to “wipe Israel off the map” at an event called “The world without Zionism”. Mr Ahmadinejad was also quoted as saying that: “Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the [Iranian] Islamic nation’s fury.”

While the speech was widely condemned, Mr Corbyn wrote in 2005 for the extreme-left Morning Star: “The opportunity provided by Ahmadinejad’s speech should be used to build dialogue with and within Iran and, of course, on the issue of Palestine. The context overlooked by the sensationalist headlines was that his speech also pointed out what Israel is doing to Palestine. All the righteous indignation never mentioned a few salient points. Israel has illegal and undeclared nuclear weapons, has not signed the non proliferation treaty and continues to develop them.”

Mr Corbyn could not have been in any doubt about the antisemitic nature of the speech, delivered as it was from behind a lectern bearing the title of the event: “The world without Zionism”, however Mr Corbyn did not include any condemnation of the speech, despite it attracting opprobrium from around the world. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, former US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and more than a dozen other civic and religious leaders joined with demonstrators outside Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York. Former British Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown also condemned the speech, using an address to the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, in 2008 to say: “To those who believe that threatening statements fall upon indifferent ears we say in one voice: it is totally abhorrent for the President of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world.”

Mr Corbyn’s article was unearthed by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

In addition to seeking a new Holocaust by calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state, Mr Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a “myth” and a “lie” and hosted a Holocaust denial conference in 2006 attended by David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

The latest revelation of Mr Corbyn’s disturbing writings comes just a few days after Hamas, the terrorist organisation which seeks the murder of all Jews worldwide, issued a statement to “salute” Jeremy Corbyn for supporting last weekend’s antisemitic march through London. It said that it had “great respect and appreciation [sic] the solidarity message sent by the British Labor [sic] Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.”

Mr Corbyn was formerly paid tens of thousands of pounds to appear on Press TV, the Iranian-run channel, even after it was banned in the UK.

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.

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

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

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Hamas issues statement in “salute” to Jeremy Corbyn, noting its “great respect and appreciation” for his support of antisemitic march

Hamas, the terrorist organisation which seeks the murder of all Jews worldwide, has issued a statement in which it “salutes” Jeremy Corbyn for supporting this weekend’s antisemitic march through London. It said that it had “great respect and appreciation [sic] the solidarity message sent by the British Labor [sic] Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn”.

Only one leader of a British political party could expect to be “saluted” by Hamas, the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation. Clearly Hamas feels that when it comes to Jews, Jeremy Corbyn is a brother in arms. Who could say that they are wrong after he gave his fulsome backing to this weekend’s chilling antisemitic rally, attended by both the leader of the National Front and known members of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Almost 55,000 people have signed our petition stating that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and unfit for public office.

Hamas’ statement, which was first reported by Mail Online Global Editor Jake Wallis-Simons, comes in response to Mr Corbyn’s decision to warmly back an antisemitic march through London at the weekend. He sent a statement to be read out by Diane Abbott, which was received with cheers by the crowd, amongst which were Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon, National Front leader Tony Martin, and known members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The crowd began cheering at the mere mention of Mr Corbyn’s name and applause and cheering continued as his statement was read. The cheers were videoed by a Twitter user who is well-known to Campaign Against Antisemitism for sending Jews abuse online.

The march, entitled the “National Demonstration for Palestine: Exist! Resist! Return!”, was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), of which Mr Corbyn is patron. Mr Corbyn has long championed the PSC, attending many of its events, including one of which at which he was filmed applauding antisemitic poetry.

Marchers also cheered as one speaker told them that American Rabbis fuelled the neo-Nazis who shot and killed worshippers at synagogues in the United States, and that Jewish organisations and leaders were “in the gutter with…rats” and “part of the problem”. The speaker was then put in charge of antisemitism training at an official Labour Party event.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit went into the thick of the protest to gather evidence which our Crime Unit is already reviewing.

Under a heavy police presence, protesters assembled outside the BBC headquarters and marched to Whitehall, the heart of British democracy, via iconic Regent Street. The BBC is just a short walk from Central Synagogue where many Jews were gathered for the Sabbath.

Various placards and badges on brazen display drew upon antisemitic conspiracy theories. One large placard declared that “Israel provokes antisemitism”. A badge emblazoned with a Star of David with a Nazi swastika in its midst proclaimed “Down with Zionism”. Another placard repeated the rhyme frequently chanted by the marchers; “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free”, which only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a Palestinian state, and is thus an attempt to uniquely deny Jews the right to self-determination. One marcher held aloft a placard suggesting that the BBC is controlled by the Israeli Prime Minister, whilst others hinted strongly at blood libels, carrying a coffin emblazoned with a claim that “Israelis execute Palestinian children” while another held a placard showing a diamond dripping with blood, stating that Israel exports “blood diamonds”, a phrase normally used to refer to diamonds mined by war criminals, usually using child slave labour.

The leader of the National Front, Tony Martin, attended the march, as did known Islamist extremists spotted by our volunteers, including one who was wearing the emblem of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Activists from “Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism” or LAZIR, founded by Pete Gregson, who was reportedly expelled from the GMB Union over his claims that Israel “exaggerates” the Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews “for political ends” and who seeks to drive “Zionism out of the Labour Party”, handed out leaflets claiming that Zionism, the movement to grant Jews self-determination, is “racism”.

Marching alongside them was the antisemitism-denial group, the sham Jewish Voice for Labour. Its Secretary, Glyn Secker, made a speech which was rapturously received, claiming that Jews were “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”.

Holding American Rabbis responsible for fuelling the neo-Nazis behind antisemitic terrorism, including the fatal terrorist attack on Poway synagogue, Mr Secker claimed that they were “unleashing the extreme-right to win key votes in marginal states which determine the presidency”.

He then called 119 Labour MPs who are “friends of Israel” a “fifth column in the Labour Party led by [Dame Margaret] Hodge and [Tom] Watson and the Jewish Labour Movement.” Upon hearing the name of the Jewish Labour Movement, the crowd booed loudly.

“What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter with these rats?” Mr Secker asked, after claiming that the “Zionist Federation embraces the [far-right] English Defence League”, which is a fabrication. The crowd responded with calls of “Ban then from the Labour Party”.

Mr Secker then asked when Jews would fight fascism, before building to a crescendo: “Here’s a warning to the [British] Jewish leadership, while you foment your campaign of allegations of antisemitism against Corbyn and the left to silence Israel’s critics, while you cry wolf month after month, year after year in the Labour Party and remain blind to the explosion of the far-right and Islamophobia, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” The crowd cheered, by Mr Secker continued: “You serve to protect the poison that would destroy both our freedom and yours. Well brothers and sisters, we are on the side of the Palestinians. We are on the side of the freedom marchers of ghetto Gaza.”

Labour leaders previously intervened to stop Mr Secker from being punished under the Party’s disciplinary process.

Following his speech, Mr Secker has been put in charge of antisemitism training at an official Labour Party event.

Ahed Tamimi, who served almost eight months in prison in Israel for assault, was the star attraction and addressed the crowd briefly. She finished her speech by repeating the antisemitic chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit saw no attempt by stewards from the PSC to remonstrate with any of the speakers or marchers.

Richard Burgon, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, who previously claimed that “Zionism is the enemy of peace” having told a court under oath that he had said no such thing, also addressed the crowd. The fact that Mr Burgon and Ms Abbott, such senior Labour politicians, attended an event which saw widespread antisemitism should be a cause for considerable concern.

The marchers, however, did not have the streets of central London to themselves. A brave group of anti-terrorism activists waving Israeli flags confronted the marchers.

The protest was organised by the PSC, Stop the War Coalition, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al- Aqsa and the Muslim Association of Britain. It was supported by the pro-Corbyn Momentum faction of the Labour Party as well as trade unions Unite, PCS, Unison, GMB, RMT, ASLEF, UCU, NEU, TSSA, CWU, and other organisations including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Amos Trust charity.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC. Just this week, an Evening Standard investigation uncovered supporters of the PSC sharing antisemitic posts comparing Israelis to Nazis. The shocking antisemitic posts reportedly included a cartoon comparing Israeli Jews with white power neo-Nazis and an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bathing in Palestinian blood, posing with Adolf Hitler.

The march was a clear example of the coalition of antisemitism that British Jews now find themselves the target of. The far-left, the far-right and Islamist extremists clearly all share a common hatred of Jews.

We are now reviewing the evidence that we gathered at the march. Where crimes were committed, we will work with the authorities to ensure that there are arrests and prosecutions.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, his actions clearly show that he is an antisemite who is unfit for office.

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Crowds at Corbyn-supported anti-Israel march attended by National Front leader cheer as speaker says Jewish organisations are “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”

Central London was brought to a chaotic standstill today as thousands marched and rallied against Israel at the “National Demonstration for Palestine: Exist! Resist! Return!”

The march saw open antisemitism from attendees, many of whom cheered as one speaker told adoring crowds that Jewish organisations are “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”. Numerous antisemitic banners and placards were carried through the streets, including one declaring that “Israel provokes antisemitism.” In attendance were senior Labour MPs, known Islamist extremists, and Tony Martin, the leader of the neo-Nazi National Front.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit went into the thick of the protest to gather evidence which our Crime Unit is already reviewing.

Under a heavy police presence, protesters assembled outside the BBC headquarters and marched to Whitehall, the heart of British democracy, via iconic Regent Street. The BBC is just a short walk from Central Synagogue where many Jews were gathered for the Sabbath.

Various placards and badges on brazen display drew upon antisemitic conspiracy theories. One large placard declared that “Israel provokes antisemitism”. A badge emblazoned with a Star of David with a Nazi swastika in its midst proclaimed “Down with Zionism”. Another placard repeated the rhyme frequently chanted by the marchers; “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free”, which only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a Palestinian state, and is thus an attempt to uniquely deny Jews the right to self-determination. One marcher held aloft a placard suggesting that the BBC is controlled by the Israeli Prime Minister, whilst others hinted strongly at blood libels, carrying a coffin emblazoned with a claim that “Israelis execute Palestinian children” while another held a placard showing a diamond dripping with blood, stating that Israel exports “blood diamonds”, a phrase normally used to refer to diamonds mined by war criminals, usually using child slave labour.

Known Islamist extremists were also spotted by our volunteers, including one who was wearing the emblem of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Activists from “Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism” or LAZIR, founded by Pete Gregson, who was reportedly expelled from the GMB Union over his claims that Israel “exaggerates” the Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews “for political ends” and who seeks to drive “Zionism out of the Labour Party”, handed out leaflets claiming that Zionism, the movement to grant Jews self-determination, is “racism”.

Marching alongside them was the antisemitism-denial group, the sham Jewish Voice for Labour. Its Secretary, Glyn Secker, made a speech which was rapturously received, claiming that Jews were “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”.

Holding American Rabbis responsible for fuelling the neo-Nazis behind antisemitic terrorism, including the fatal terrorist attack on Poway synagogue, Mr Secker claimed that they were “unleashing the extreme-right to win key votes in marginal states which determine the presidency”.

He then called 119 Labour MPs who are “friends of Israel” a “fifth column in the Labour Party led by [Dame Margaret] Hodge and [Tom] Watson and the Jewish Labour Movement.” Upon hearing the name of the Jewish Labour Movement, the crowd booed loudly.

“What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter with these rats?” Mr Secker asked, after claiming that the “Zionist Federation embraces the [far-right] English Defence League”, which is a fabrication. The crowd responded with calls of “Ban then from the Labour Party”.

Mr Secker then asked when Jews would fight fascism, before building to a crescendo: “Here’s a warning to the [British] Jewish leadership, while you foment your campaign of allegations of antisemitism against Corbyn and the left to silence Israel’s critics, while you cry wolf month after month, year after year in the Labour Party and remain blind to the explosion of the far-right and Islamophobia, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” The crowd cheered, by Mr Secker continued: “You serve to protect the poison that would destroy both our freedom and yours. Well brothers and sisters, we are on the side of the Palestinians. We are on the side of the freedom marchers of ghetto Gaza.”

Labour leaders previously intervened to stop Mr Secker from being punished under the Party’s disciplinary process.

Ahed Tamimi, who served almost eight months in prison in Israel for assault, was the star attraction and addressed the crowd briefly. She finished her speech by repeating the antisemitic chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit saw no attempt by stewards from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) to remonstrate with any of the speakers or marchers.

Jeremy Corbyn, who is patron of the PSC, gave the march his ringing endorsement. A statement from him was read out by Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and videoed by a Twitter user who is well-known to us for sending Jews abuse online. The crowd began cheering at the mere mention of Mr Corbyn’s name and applause and cheering continued as his statement was read. Mr Corbyn has long championed the PSC, attending many of its events, including one of which at which he was filmed applauding antisemitic poetry.

Richard Burgon, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, who previously claimed that “Zionism is the enemy of peace” having told a court under oath that he had said no such thing, also addressed the crowd. The fact that Mr Burgon and Ms Abbott, such senior Labour politicians, attended an event which saw widespread antisemitism should be a cause for considerable concern.

The marchers, however, did not have the streets of central London to themselves. A brave group of anti-terrorism activists waving Israeli flags confronted the marchers.

The protest was organised by the PSC, Stop the War Coalition, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al- Aqsa and the Muslim Association of Britain. It was supported by the pro-Corbyn Momentum faction of the Labour Party as well as trade unions Unite, PCS, Unison, GMB, RMT, ASLEF, UCU, NEU, TSSA, CWU, and other organisations including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Amos Trust charity.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC. Just this week, an Evening Standard investigation uncovered supporters of the PSC sharing antisemitic posts comparing Israelis to Nazis. The shocking antisemitic posts reportedly included a cartoon comparing Israeli Jews with white power neo-Nazis and an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bathing in Palestinian blood, posing with Adolf Hitler.

The fact that this march saw such brazen displays of antisemitism, with warm support for and from the Labour Party and major trade unions, as well as with the attendance of Islamists and at least one neo-Nazi leader, clearly shows the coalition of antisemitism that British Jews now find themselves the target of. The far-left, the far-right and Islamist extremists clearly all share a common hatred of Jews, and they all attempt to conceal their antisemitism as opposition the world’s only Jewish state.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Crime Unit is now reviewing the evidence gathered today by the volunteers of our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit. Where crimes have been committed, we will pursue prosecutions.

We are seeking to recruit a Communications and Research Manager an Education and Outreach Intern to join our London office

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Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. Everything that we do is done by people who volunteer their time, using donations contributed by members of the public. Join the fight against antisemitism by subscribing to our updates, volunteering, or donating.