The Usual Suspects? 60+ Labour Lords accuse Corbyn of failing on anti-Semitism

More than sixty Labour Lords have taken an advert out in The Guardian to accuse Jeremy Corbyn of having “failed the test of leadership” on anti-Semitism. Taking a moral stand or a cynical ploy to force the opposition leader out?

The 64 peers include former ministers, as well as Peter Mandelson, a key ally of Tony Blair’s New Labour government, and Iain McNicol, the party’s general secretary from 2011 to 2018. The highly critical ad savages Corbyn for transforming a historically anti-racist party that welcomes people of all races and creeds into one that is hostile towards Jews.

“We are not asking if you are an antisemite. We are saying you are accountable as leader for allowing antisemitism to grow in our party and presiding over the most shaming period in Labour’s history,” the polemical ad reads.

The Labour leader has been dogged with accusations of promoting and/or failing to stamp out anti-Semitism within his party, ever since being elected in 2015. 

This latest show of anger towards Corbyn over this contentious issue was sparked by a recent BBC Panorama documentary on Labour’s so-called anti-Semitism crisis. The program featured eight former staff members who accused Labour of failing to tackle complaints on anti-Semitism and alleged that Corbyn’s office had interfered with disputes.

Numerous Labour supporters on social media have taken issue with the letter, claiming this is not about ridding the party of anti-Semitism, but rather about “forcing Corbyn out as Leader.” 

Many of the people condemning Corbyn are politicians from the Blair years who have been consistently critical of the socialist leader. None more so than Lord Mandelson, who admitted in February 2017 that he worked “every single day in some small way to bring forward the end of his [Corbyn’s] tenure in office.”

The Labour Party has revealed that 0.06 percent of members have been disciplined for anti-Semitism offences since September 2015, which accounts for just over 300 people out of a mambership of around 515,000.

The question ‘does anti-Semitism exist within the Labour Party?’ is not up for debate, but whether the affair has become a “crisis” certainly is. The weaponization of such a serious issue is being cranked up by Corbyn’s opponents, knowing that a general election could soon be on the horizon.

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