Jewish leaders call meeting with Jeremy Corbyn 'disappointing and a missed opportunity'

Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council accuse Labour leader of 'excuses for inactivity' after showdown talks - but he calls meeting 'positive and constructive'

Jewish community leaders have hit out at Jeremy Corbyn after a crunch meeting to discuss antisemitism in the Labour Party, describing the talks as “disappointing and a missed opportunity”.

Following a highly-charged meeting in Parliament, the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) said Mr Corbyn had "failed to agree to any of the concrete actions" they had demanded he take.

The meeting was an attempt to defuse the row over anti-Jewish abuse in Labour, which Mr Corbyn has said he has an "absolute determination" to stamp out.

However, in a joint statement following the two-hour meeting, the two Jewish community groups said: "Our meeting with Jeremy Corbyn today was a disappointing missed opportunity regarding the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

"We welcomed Mr Corbyn's personal involvement in the discussion and his new comments recognising and apologising for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party but he failed to agree to any of the concrete actions we asked for in our letter to him of March 28."

They said the proposals put forward last month represented the "minimum level of action" the Jewish community expected from the Labour leadership following "two years of inactivity".

"Words in letters and and newspaper articles will never be enough", the groups added, as they called on Mr Corbyn to turn his words into "strong actions in order to bring about deep cultural change".

The meeting was attended by Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush and Jewish Leadership Council chair Jonathan Goldstein.

They had previously asked Mr Corbyn and Labour's new general secretary, Jenny Formby, to take a range of actions, including resolving the antisemitism cases against Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker, setting a fixed timetable for dealing with other disciplinary matters, instructing MPs not to share a platform with anyone suspended or expelled by the out the party for anti-Jewish abuse.

They also asked Labour to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, and agree to "transparent oversight" of disciplinary cases.

The two groups said Mr Corbyn's team had not agreed to any of the demands, although this was disputed by Labour.

Addressing reporters afterwards, Mr Goldstein said: “We are extremely disappointed that, one month after we issued a very sensible and well thought-through series of proposals, not one of them – not one of them – has been given to the Jewish community."

He added: “Every excuse given by Mr Corbyn and his team was wrapped up in process. Here we have a leader of the Labour Party who has control of the national executive and who has undoubted strength and control over his party. So we feel the excuses of process are just another excuse for inactivity. That’s why we say we will judge him on his actions, not his words.”

A spokesperson for the JLC added: "This isn’t asking much – that we as a community ask for the protection and support of the leadership of the party, in the same way as the leader would support any other minority group."

Mr Corbyn, however, described the meeting as "positive and constructive" and re-iterated that he was "absolutely committed" to rooting out antisemitism in the Labour Party.

“I am absolutely committed to rooting out anti-semitism from our party and our society," he said.

“When members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties, we must recognise them as we would those of any other community. Their concerns are not 'smears'. Jews belong in the Labour Party and we are utterly committed to making it a safe and welcoming place for them.

Labour sources said Mr Corbyn and Ms Formby had agreed with the need to speed up the cases of Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker, who were both suspended by Labour over alleged antisemitism. The party leadership has instructed that both cases must be resolved by the end of July, it is understood.

Ms Formby is also believed to be reviewing the party's disciplinary processes in order to identify the cause of delays. Party sources said this process is likely to result in fixed time limits being introduced.

Mr Corbyn said: “I have charged our new General Secretary, Jennie Formby, with improving our disciplinary procedures as her top priority to ensure all complaints are dealt with swiftly and fairly.

"We are grateful for the input from Jewish community groups, who we will continue to listen to carefully.

“We will lay out the further steps we are taking in the coming weeks. We will continue to engage and work with Jewish community organisations to deal with this issue. Our party will not fail our Jewish brothers and sisters."

Spokespeople for the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council accused Mr Corbyn of having “hid behind process” in refusing to meet their demands, saying of the Labour leadership: “Whatever frustration they have, he as the leader doesn’t feel he can moved beyond that.”

They also criticised Mr Corbyn’s office for inviting the controversial Jewish Voice for Labour group to a roundtable discussion on antisemitism. The group has consistently denied there is widespread antisemitism in the party, and has claimed allegations are being used to undermine the Labour leadership.

Representatives of the BoD and JLC said: “We made clear the message that is sent to our Jewish community when the [Labour] leadership invites a whole range of people to discuss antisemitism who actually deny that antisemitism exists in the Labour Party.”

Mr Corbyn admitted “missteps were taken” during the organising of the roundtable meeting, they said.

While they welcomed an “improvement” in Mr Corbyn’s language when discussing antisemitism, the spokespeople said they believed nothing achieved on concrete actions to be taken.

"We set out what we felt was the minimum level of action and in this meeting they didn’t offer us any of the things that we asked for," they said. "Therefore we have to see, over the next few months and certainly before we meet again, whether they are prepared to do any of these things.”