Top Labour MPs ‘plot coup’ against Corbyn over anti-Semitism row
UK paper says senior party members fear fallout over Livingstone scandal will cost ‘hundreds of seats’ in upcoming local elections
Jeremy Corbyn is reportedly facing an internal plot to oust him as Labour leader, as an ongoing row over anti-Semitism inside the party unites members of the shadow cabinet — Britain’s virtual opposition government — with MPs seeking to replace the far-left chairman barely seven months after his September 2015 election.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, senior Labourites are fearful that the fallout from the anti-Semitism scandal will cost the party “hundreds of seats” in local elections taking place next week, and are “openly discussing” a potential coup after Britain’s June 23 referendum on whether to leave the European Union.
The Telegraph said that Corbyn has resigned himself to a potential leadership challenge after the local voting, which polls predict will be a washout for Labour, quoting him as saying that “we will have an election” should he face an attempt to oust him.
The paper also said that there were indications of a “growing split” between Corbyn and his shadow chancellor (finance minister) John McDonnell, quoting Labour insiders as saying that as the latter “wants Jeremy’s job.”
Meanwhile, the paper added, Corbyn’s deputy chief of staff Anneliese Midgley has resigned in protest over his handling of the row, and chief of staff Simon Fletcher is being sidelined for “repeated clashes” with Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s head of communications. Milne himself has come under fire for his previous support for “resistance” against British troops in Iraq and justification of terror attacks against Israel.
Corbyn on Thursday suspended long-term ally Ken Livingstone after he told the BBC that Hitler had supported Zionism “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.” The suspension, which Corbyn later called “very sad,” came a day after Labour MP Naz Shah was also suspended, pending an investigation into allegations that she shared anti-Semitic posts on social media before being elected last year.
Corbyn on Friday announced an independent review into racism within the party, as he faced intense criticism over his handling of the row, while Livingstone doubled down on his claims, despite condemnation from across Labour, saying they were a “truth” that isn’t taught “in Israeli schools.”
Roger Moorhouse, a prominent British historian specializing in Nazi Germany, Hitler and World War II dismissed the former London mayor’s assertions as ignorant and “historically illiterate.”
Wrote fellow historian Andrew Roberts: “The idea that Hitler ever wanted a fully-functioning successful Jewish state in Palestine – the dream of Zionists – is ludicrous, as Mr Livingstone undoubtedly knows. The sole reason Ken Livingstone brought up the Fuhrer in his interview was to be as vicious and loathsome as he possibly could to any Jews listening, rather than genuinely intending to make some valid historical point about the migration policies of the putative Third Reich in the 1930s.”
David Abrahams, a Jewish donor who has given close to $1 million to Labour over the past two decades, this week ended his support for the party over anti-Semitism within its ranks, which he called “a plague that has to be stamped out.”
The Times of Israel Community.