Senior Labour MPs tell Corbyn to act quickly on anti-Semitism in party
After former London mayor suspended for saying Hitler supported Zionism, shadow minister says allegations of anti-Semitism ‘not being dealt with properly’
Senior UK Labour Party lawmakers called on party leader Jeremy Corbyn to take firmer action against anti-Semitism among its members, after two senior politicians were dismissed for anti-Semitic remarks.
The Labour Party’s shadow home secretary Andy Burnham told Sky News on Friday that opposition party members “have made anti-Semitic comments” and that “these allegations, when they are surfacing, are not being dealt with properly and quickly enough.”
At least 39 members of the Labour Party’s 230 members of Parliament have criticized Corbyn’s handling of the scandal, according to The Telegraph, which has included party leader’s suggestion that the crisis was created by “those who are nervous of the strength of the Labour Party at local level.”
Labour’s anti-Semites “need to be dealt with much more speedily in the future,” Burnham said. “If anti-Semitism is found, expulsion should follow, no ifs or buts.
“I would resign tomorrow if I thought I was in a party promoting anti-Semitism,” he added.
MP Wes Streeting, vice chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, told the British news outlet that Corbyn’s insistence that anti-Semitism was limited to a few members of the party was incorrect.
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Corbyn on Thursday denied his party had an anti-Semitism problem, saying it was “totally opposed to anti-Semitism in any form within the party. The very small number of cases that have been brought to our attention have been dealt with swiftly and immediately, and they will be.”
“I don’t see how we can’t say there isn’t at least a serious problem,” Streeting told Sky.
Corbyn on Thursday suspended senior Labour Party member Ken Livingstone after he claimed Hitler was initially a supporter of Zionism “before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews,” and charged that for decades in the UK there has been a “well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticizes Israeli policy as anti-Semitic.”
The comments by Livingstone, a veteran former London mayor who sits on Labour’s national executive and heads the opposition party’s international policy commission, prompted outraged calls, including by many of his colleagues, for his removal from the party, and intensified the crisis in Labour over anti-Semitism within its ranks.
“Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour Party, pending an investigation, for bringing the Party into disrepute,” Labour announced.
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The Board of Deputies of British Jews said Livingstone should be kicked out of Labour altogether. Board President Jonathan Arkush said: “Ken Livingstone’s comments were abhorrent and beyond disgraceful. His latest comments combine Holocaust revisionism with anti-Semitism denial, when the evidence is there for all to see. He lacks any sense of decency. He must now be expelled from the Labour Party.”
Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate in the current campaign for the London mayoralty, had called Livingstone’s remarks “appalling and inexcusable.”
Labour colleague John Mann MP confronted Livingstone in an extraordinary face-off caught on video to call him “a Nazi apologist,” a “fucking disgrace,” and a “disgusting racist” who was rewriting history. Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, told Livingstone he “should read Mein Kampf” and would learn that Hitler was opposed to a Jewish state, since he thought that it would create a Jewish power base. “I think you’ve lost it, Mr. Livingstone,” stormed Mann. “What are you on at the moment?”
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Mann was summoned by the party leadership, in the wake of those comments, “to discuss his conduct” and told that his conduct had been “completely inappropriate.” The telling-off for Mann also prompted complaints from several of his Labour colleagues.
The controversy erupted a day after Labour leader Corbyn, a bitter critic of Israel who has referred to Hamas and Hezbollah representatives as “friends,” reluctantly suspended an MP, Naz Shah, who had called for the dismantling of Israel, compared Israelis to Hitler and posted pro-Hamas tweets.
Livingstone gave an interview Thursday morning in which he attempted to defend Shah. He told BBC London, “There’s been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticizes Israeli policy as anti-Semitic. I had to put up with 35 years of this.
“Frankly,” Livingstone also said, according to the Guardian, “there’s been an attempt to smear Jeremy Corbyn and his associates as anti-Semitic from the moment he became leader. The simple fact is we have the right to criticize what is one of the most brutal regimes going in the way it treats the Palestinians.”
Relating to Shah’s Facebook post calling for Israel to be “relocated” to America, Livingstone brought Hitler into the conversation, saying: “Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism — this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
Defending Shah, Livingstone said: “She’s a deep critic of Israel and its policies. Her remarks were over the top but she’s not anti-Semitic. I’ve been in the Labour Party for 47 years; I’ve never heard anyone say anything anti-Semitic. I’ve heard a lot of criticism of the State of Israel and its abuse of Palestinians, but I’ve never heard anyone say anything anti-Semitic. It’s completely over the top but it’s not anti-Semitic.”
Politicians across the spectrum rounded on Livingstone, with a growing number of the party’s own MPs urging that he be removed or suspended from the party.
Corbyn suspended Shah on Wednesday afternoon, after initially standing by her.
Also Wednesday, fellow Labour MP Streeting told The Times of Israel in an interview that his party’s response to anti-Semitism has thus far been “flat-footed and ineffective” and that “now there is media scrutiny in light of Jeremy Corbyn’s election. It’s a bit like lifting up a stone and having insects crawl out from under it.” (On Thursday, Streeting added his voice to those calling for Livingstone to be “suspended immediately,” saying he had a track record of anti-Semitism.)
Battling the storm over her stance on Israel, Shah on Wednesday afternoon issued a personal apology in the House of Commons for her remarks, which she stressed she had made before she became an MP, and vowed to build better relations with Jews and all others.
“I hope you will allow me to say that I fully acknowledge that I have made a mistake and I wholeheartedly apologize to this house for the words I used before I became a member,” said Shah. “I accept and understand that the words I used caused upset and hurt to the Jewish community and I deeply regret that. Anti-Semitism is racism, full stop. As an MP I will do everything in my power to build relations between Muslims, Jews and people of different faiths and none.”
But Corbyn, having initially accepted her apology, suspended her a short time later. Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party had earlier called it “quite extraordinary” that Labour had not suspended Shah. The Guardian quoted an aide to the prime minister saying, “If the Labour Party had a shred of decency she would be immediately suspended… Jeremy Corbyn should be ashamed of himself.”
Corbyn, who was elected Labour leader in September, told the BBC on April 11 that anyone making anti-Semitic statements “is auto-excluded from the party.” This policy was announced amid intense media scrutiny of Labour in connection with several incidents of hate speech against Jews, which some critics trace back to Corbyn’s past support for enemies of Israel, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
