UK Labour deputy flags tweets by party members accusing Jews of murdering kids
Tom Watson says he received 50 complaints of anti-Semitism last week from colleagues, calls on Corbyn to personally address them
Lawmakers in Britain’s Labour opposition party have reportedly flagged social media posts from members accusing Jews of murdering children and questioning whether Jewish parliamentarians have “human blood.”
MP Tom Watson, the deputy chief of Labour, said he received 50 complaints of anti-Semitism last week from Labour colleagues, and called on leader Jeremy Corbyn to personally take them before the party’s top governing body.
According to a Sunday report in the Guardian, the complaints received by Watson included a number of anti-Semitic posts on Twitter by Labour members, such as one alleging “Jews murder people and children.”
“Wonder why Jewish people are hated wherever they’ve settled over last 2000 years. Their double dealing, back stabbing, cheating chilling coldness has always only one outcome. I wonder what the average period of time is before people fed up with the anti-social Jews kick em out,” read one of the tweets, according to the report.
Another tweet said Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was an “illegitimate Rothschild,” the Jewish banking family at the center of numerous anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, while another questioned whether Jewish officials in Labour have “human blood.”
“Their hearts and brains totally devoid of humanity,” the Twitter post reportedly said.
Labour has been rocked by charges of anti-Semitism in its ranks since the hard-left Corbyn became head of the opposition party in 2015, with Corbyn himself also facing such accusations — which he has denied.
In an interview with the BBC, Watson warned Labour faced risked further defections if it does not change course under Corbyn.
Watson spoke while sitting across the studio from Luciana Berger, one of nine lawmakers to quit Labour last week in protest of Corbyn and his response to growing allegations of anti-Semitism in the party.
“Of course, Jeremy needs to understand that if we’re going to be in No. 10, he needs to change the Labour party and there are things we need to do,” Watson said, referring to the official residence of the British prime minister at 10 Downing Street in London.
“Firstly, we have to eradicate anti-Semitism, anti-Jewish racism in all its forms,” he added. “The situation is so grave now that he understands that he needs to make a personal invitation.
“The test for him as a leader is to eradicate anti-Semitism and it is not other Labour party members that will be the judge of that, it is the British Jewish community,” Watson added.
Watson has previously been outspoken in his criticism of Labour’s response to allegations of anti-Semitism in the party, for which he faced calls on social media last year to resign.
Many critics of Corbyn say they have received social media abuse from his supporters, while Jewish groups have criticized the party leader for his response to the anti-Semitism allegations.
Nine Labour MPs have quit the party in recent days, with many of them citing anti-Semitism within the party.
Among those who have quit are the head of Labour Friends of Israel, Joan Ryan, who left the party last week, and Holocaust survivor’s son Ian Austin.
In addition to the growing abuse online, incidents of anti-Semitism have also been on the rise in the United Kingdom, with a report released earlier this month showing a record high.
