Jeremy Corbyn admits ‘falling short’ in rooting out anti-Semitism from Labour
JEREMY CORBYN is battling to hold his party together after admitting he struggled to see anti-Jewish hatred within Labour ranks.
The row boiled over again after party grandees accused him “letting down Britain” over antisemitism, but key allies broke cover to brand the crisis an anti-Corbyn conspiracy.
Lord Levy, Lord Winston and Lord Blunkett said Mr Corbyn and his supporters had “encouraged and endorsed” the “endemic” antisemitism blighting the opposition party.
As the civil war deepened, Mr Corbyn used a video message celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover to confess he had fallen short on tackling prejudice.
Mr Corbyn said: “It is easy to denounce antisemitism when you see it in other countries, in other political movements.
"It is sometimes harder to see it when it is closer to home.”
But his comments further infuriated Labour MPs who blame him for deliberately playing down the issue for two years.
One told The Sun: “it is not hard to see, it is there in plain sight unless you are agreeing with it or ignoring it.”
MPs are demanding Mr Corbyn boot close pal Christine Shawcroft off the party’s powerful ruling committee for defending a holocaust denying Labour candidate.
Ms Shawcroft - who was forced to quit as head of investigating racism in the party on Wednesday - added to the outrage by claiming: “This whole row is being stirred up to attack Jeremy, as we all know.”
Meanwhile, The Sun can reveal lefty cheerleader Owen Jones accused enemies of Mr Corbyn of “weaponising anti-Semitism” in an astonishing rant posted online.
Speaking at a hard left Momentum rally in Portsmouth on Thursday night the mouthy Guardian writer said only a “minority” of people on the Left hated Jews.
He ranted: “There is a minority of people on the left who are anti-Semitic.
There are also people using that and weaponising that issue to portray the whole left as anti-Semitic and that’s false”.
Labour MPs tore into Mr Corbyn’s latest attempts to get a grip, declaring it fell far short of what was needed and begged him to show leadership on the issue.
Ilford MP Wes Streeting said: “These kind of warm words and sentiments about tackling the problem are all well and good but it will count for very little if it is not now backed up with some action.
“I’m happy that people on the left of the party are finally waking up to the problem but it has been two years now.
“Perhaps they could show a little humility and contrition and acknowledge that now is the time to take proper action - even if it is against your own political allies.
“At worst Christine Shawcroft knew what had been posted and defended it anyway, at best she leapt to their defence without checking the facts.
“Either way it means she is not fit to serve on the National Executive Committee.
“And while Jeremy Corbyn can’t sack her he could publicly call for her to step down, and I cannot for the life of me understand why he is refusing to do so.”
And Brighton and Hove MP Peter Kyle added: “A year ago some of us quietly went to see Jeremy, warning him about antisemitism.
"We begged him to act.
“This row exists because of their failure to act, not because some of us confront racism.”
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And Siobhain McDonagh piled in: “we have got enough letters to paper Nelson’s column saying that Jeremy will take action….We want to see action. The time for words were over.”
She went on: “Who believes that if Jeremy didn’t say that Christine Shawcroft should stand down, that she would not go?
“I know that leadership is tough and that they have probably been friends for 30 or 40 years, but when you are the leader, if somebody does something as abhorrent as support somebody who is a Holocaust denier, you have got to forget the past and realise you are a leader.”