Labour antisemitism row could cost party the next election, MP warns

Wes Streeting says voters will not elect a party complicit in racism'

Labour MPs criticised their party's leadership over its handling of antisemitism (Reuters)

The row over antisemitism in Labour could cost it the next general election, one of the party’s MPs has warned.

Wes Streeting, the Ilford North MP, told a fringe event at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool that voters would “never elect” a party seen as “indifferent to, or complicit in, racism”.

Speaking at a rally organised by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), he joined a number of Labour MPs in criticising the party leadership for its handling of antisemitism.

It came as a new poll showed voters consider Labour to be almost as “nasty” as the Tories. Almost a third (31 per cent) say Labour is now “the nasty party” – only slightly less than the 34 per cent who think the title still belongs to the Conservatives.

Mr Streeting, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews, said: “There are not enough Jewish voters to cost Labour the next general election, but there are enough decent people in this country who are so appalled and offended by racism that they will never elect to the government of this country a party that is so indifferent to, or complicit in, racism in any kind.”

He also criticised the “double standards of Labour MPs and Labour members who attacked Boris Johnson [over his comments about the Muslim niqab] but stay silent on antisemitism in our party”, calling it “sickening”.

He added: “The really troubling thing about antisemitism in our party is the bystanders who chose to look the other way and continue to do so even now – and worse still the people who through their words and their actions actively create the conditions in which antisemitism can be allowed to fester.”

He attacked trade union leaders Len McCluskey, who previously described antisemitism as “mood music”, and Mark Serwotka, who suggested the row had been invented by Israel – a claim Mr Streeting said had “no place in the Labour Party and no place in the Labour movement”.

Speaking at the same event, Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield said Labour should send party members guilty of antisemitism on trips to Auschwitz.

Ms Duffield, who faced a motion of censure from local activists after she spoke out on antisemitism, said she had visited the death camp with friends when she was a teenager.

She said: “It changed everything I ever thought I knew about the situation and being there in person was a profound experience.

“I defy anyone who repeats any of the antisemitic tropes that we see all of the time on social media to go there and to still say and feel those same things. I think they should actually be sent there by the Labour Party on a visit to see what people went through if they carry on repeating those things.”

Jewish Labour MPs Luciana Berger, Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman also used the fringe event to criticise Mr Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism.

Mr Berger said: “This year, more than ever, we have experienced attacks from the left – from people who claim they share our values, who wear the same rosette as us.”

She added: “What matters now is draining the swamp. We need to see the Labour Party step up the investigations into complaints of antisemitism and get a faster, fairer, more transparent system of internal party justice.

“The party’s new general secretary said this is her top priority and it would be dealt with by July. We are now in September and there is still that backlog.”

And Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow, told the room: “Nazism doesn’t turn up fully formed, wearing shiny black boots and black shirts and goose-stepping. It appears every single day, slowly but surely, as the debate is turned. It builds bit by bit, it gains little by little.

“It paints itself as the victim punching up, it paints its victims as enemies, as traitors, as the other, with dual loyalties. It rejects those norms and the conventions on antisemitism that we have worked so hard to defend.

“To many it looks like it’s moral but weak, until we are too late and it becomes evil and powerful. That is the threat we face if we do not confront this.”

It comes after Mr Corbyn refused to apologise for his record on antisemitism.

Asked during an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether he wanted to say sorry to the Jewish community, he replied: “I’ll simply say this – I am an anti-racist and will die an anti-racist.

“Antisemitism is a scourge in any society and I will oppose it all my life and I will continue to oppose it all my life.”