Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reserved
Labour has a ‘Jewish problem’. Or so it has been widely alleged. Headline after headline in recent weeks has claimed that the party, in whose last-but-one leadership election both front-runners were Jewish, has become infested with antisemitism. The outbreak has been blamed on the veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn and the mass influx of new members who were inspired by his leadership to join. With a long-time Palestine solidarity campaigner at the helm, the party is now said to be attracting ‘antisemites like flies to a cesspit’. Respected commentators warn that the Jewish community is ‘fast reaching the glum conclusion that Labour has become a cold house for Jews’, while within the party, these are reportedly ‘difficult times to be a Jewish member’. With ‘Labour’s merger with the far right proceeding at speed’, pundits have urged public recognition of a sobering truth: ‘antisemitism is now firmly embedded in the Labour party’s DNA. . . Labour is a racist party now’.
