British election: Jeremy Corbyn accused of anti-semitism cover-up

Voters have been urged to ‘look to their conscience’ before voting Labour after the release of a dossier accusing Jeremy Corbyn of covering up institutionalised antisemitism.

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of presiding over a cover-up of institutionalised antisemitism in the Labour Party in an “utterly damning” dossier.

Allies of Mr Corbyn repeatedly intervened to water down sanctions against those “on friendly terms” with the leadership, according to a submission from the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

In one case the party’s disciplinary body was told to lift a suspension because “JC [is] interested in this one”.

The dossier, which includes evidence from 70 whistleblowers, describes 11 occasions when Mr Corbyn had “associated with, sympathised with and engaged in antisemitism”.

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Voters were urged to “look to their conscience” before voting Labour by the JLM which compiled the 47-page report.

Party activists denied the Holocaust, jeered Jewish members and accused Jews of controlling the banks and the media, in a series of incidents stretching from when Mr Corbyn became leader to this September’s party conference.

The dossier claims that since Mr Corbyn became the Labour leader there has been a “relentless flow of antisemitism” and that there is “overwhelming evidence” that it is “pervasive at all levels of the party”.

The dossier, which includes evidence from 70 whistleblowers, describes 11 occasions when Jeremy Corbyn had “associated with, sympathised with and engaged in antisemitism”.

Labour’s response to claims of antisemitism “has been characterised by (i) denial; (ii) discrediting of victims (iii) defence of perpetrators; (iv) cover ups and (v) active victimisation of those calling out antisemitism”, the dossier claims.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, a former Labour justice secretary, told The Times: “I have the gravest, gravest concerns in the light of the antisemitism problems. It’s a leadership issue which the leadership should have dealt with. I believe [the dossier] to be utterly damning of the Labour Party. It shows strong evidence of an institutional attempt to sweep under the carpet evidence of antisemitism.”

Peter Mason, national secretary of the JLM, said voters would have to “look to their conscience” before voting for the party to which it has been affiliated for 99 years.

Sam Matthews, the former acting director of Labour’s governance and legal unit, pointed to an incident where the membership secretary in South Tottenham is alleged to have objected to applications from 25 orthodox Jews applying for membership and required home visits to assess them.

Mr Matthews accused allies of Mr Corbyn of “daily interference in the process” of investigating complaints about antisemitism, saying Labour suffers from a “rot that runs all the way through the party”. He said: “I witnessed first-hand the complete failure of the policy processes to adequately deal with anti-Jewish racism.”

He said he saw a flood of antisemitic new members after Mr Corbyn fought off a leadership challenge in 2016, saying the party had “a problem of culture that can only be challenged by leadership. A leadership that is willing to be uncompromising about rooting out almost five years of a sickness.”

Mr Matthews has previously said he contemplated suicide over the problem and is taking legal action against the party over its response to his criticism of its handling of antisemitism this year. He accused the leadership of a “campaign of lies and misinformation” about their handling of antisemitism.

Sheikh Raed Salah, the firebrand Islamic Movement leader in Israel.

Yesterday a video emerged of Mr Corbyn greeting an Islamic preacher convicted of using the “blood libel” that Jews kill children for their blood. He was seen shaking Raed Salah’s hand after a 2012 talk in which he called him an “honoured citizen”.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, told LBC: “The Labour Party has fallen woefully short and I think we, as a party and people in senior positions, like me, must apologise. Not just to the Jewish community, but all decent people, for the way our party has failed to get a grip with this serious problem.”

A Labour Party spokesman said: “Antisemitism is an evil and we are committed to rooting it out of our party and society. We are fully co-operating with the EHRC. The allegation about numbers of outstanding cases is not accurate. And it is categorically untrue that anyone has been instructed to lie.

“The Labour Party is not institutionally antisemitic and complaints relate to a small minority of our members.

“We are the only political party that has published figures on cases of antisemitism, and we regularly account for the work we are doing to tackle it.

“We have significantly reformed our procedures over the past year, including recently adopting a proposal by Jeremy Corbyn for rapid expulsions, which allows individuals to be expelled within a matter of weeks in open and shut cases.”

THE TIMES