ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Jeremy Corbyn gets branded the ‘poster boy for anti-Semitism’ as hundreds protest outside Parliament
Dozens of Labour MPs came out to speak out against the party leader in a protest outside the Commons
JEREMY Corbyn issued a grovelling double apology to Jewish community leaders as he was branded a “poster boy for anti-Semitism”.
Just an hour before an unprecedented protest, the Labour leader insisted he was a “militant opponent” of anti-Semitism.
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And in an open letter to community leaders he finally said sorry for “wrongly questioning” the removal of a horrific anti-Jewish mural in 2012.
Over a dozen Labour MPs joined 500 protestors outside the Commons demanding Jeremy Corbyn act on his words and throw out anti-Semites from Labour ranks.
To huge applause Wes Streeting said the Labour leader had to “drain the cesspit” – storming: “We need no more mealy-mouthed statements from the leader of the Labour party.
“The fact we are even having this meeting is a stain on the conscience of the Labour party.
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"It is a betrayal of everything that the Labour party has ever stood for.”
To chants of ‘Oh, Jeremy’s a racist’, Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush said: “This is Jeremy’s chance if he can take it.
“The Labour Party must go back to being the enemy of racists – not the refuge of racists.”
Protestors included a Julie Phillips, 70 year-old whose grandfather was beaten to death guards in the Second World War.
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She told The Sun Labour’s refusal to tackle anti-Semitism had created an atmosphere similar to the 1930s.
Alex Devries, whose Mother was in Auschwitz, said: “I’m not saying Jeremy Corbyn is anti-Semitic but the thing is he hangs out with people who definitely are.”
The demonstration had earlier risked descending into farce as a pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour group spoke over the rival protest.
JVL exec Mike Cushman sparked uproar by saying only those fighting for the rights of Palestine were the “real Jew”.
Earlier yesterday Labour MPs had urged Jeremy Corbyn to attend the demonstration – or last night’s meeting of the Labour Parliamentary Party – to explain what he would do.
In a searing attack, Labour veteran Margaret Hodge said the Labour leader had “allowed himself to
become the poster boy of anti-Semitics everywhere”.
And she slammed the 2016 report into anti-Semitism by Corbyn ally Shami Chakrabarti as an outright “failure”.
Last night John Mann told MPs at a meeting of the parliamentary party they had to demand change.
He said: “If we don’t get our act together we won’t be elected – and deservedly so.”
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In a Facebook post, Ms Hodge said: “I am deeply offended by what appears to be persistent and pervasive anti-Semitism in and around the Labour Party.
“This is not the new politics.”
Dame Margaret, whose parents are Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany, added the Labour leader had to “clearly disassociate himself from those who continue to preach anti-Semitism”.