Corbyn’s Momentum cronies FINALLY admit Labour’s anti-Semitism problem

EVEN Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left support group Momentum has admitted Labour has a problem with anti-Semitism.

In a humiliating about-turn after weeks of denial, it put out a statement acknowledging that anti-Jewish bias is “more widespread in the Labour party than many of us had understood even a few months ago”.

And in an unprecedented intervention Momentum was forced to plead its supporters to stop attacking those who have accused Labour of failing to combat anti-Semitism.

In a bid to finally get control of the spiralling crisis, the group - born out of Mr Corbyn’s successful leadership bid three years ago - said accusations of anti-Semitism in Labour were not right-wing smears or a conspiracy.

It promised to review its internal complaints procedures and constitution to ensure the group meets its commitment to “stamping out” anti-Semitism. It also attacked Labour’s “failure” to deal with “numerous cases of anti-Semitism in the Labour party”.

But Momentum maintained that some political opponents of Mr Corbyn had exploited the anti-Semitism crisis to attack him. Last night Mr Corbyn made a fresh vow to investigate “every case that is brought to our attention and if the person has committed an anti-Semitic act, in any way, then they are suspended and usually expelled from the party as a result of that”.

He told Channel 4 News: “We are not tolerating anti-Semitism in any form in the Labour Party.”

Mr Corbyn said the first task of new general secretary Jennie Formby when she takes up her role today will be to appoint an in-house lawyer to ensure that procedures for dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism are “absolutely strong and watertight”.

It came after Labour’s former General Secretary Lord Triesman warned that Jeremy Corbyn’s tolerance of anti-semitism in Labour is like the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s. In a sign of the alarming scale of Labour’s problem with anti-semitism, he said Labour risked a “1930s outcome unless it combatted the “really serious problem” of anti-Jewish sentiment poisoning the party.

Senior Labour MP John Mann, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group against anti-Semitism, told The Sun: “It’s horrifying and many Jewish people are genuinely scare for their future”.

But shadow minister Stephen Pound sparked fresh anger after rejecting calls to expel Labour members accused of anti-Semitism - and insisted the party would deal with them in “our own way”.

In a statement yesterday, Momentum said: “Accusations of anti-Semitism should not and cannot be dismissed simply as right-wing smears nor as the result of conspiracies.

“Current examples of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party are not only a problem of a few, extreme ‘bad apples’ but also of unconscious bias which manifests itself in varied, nuanced and subtle ways and is more widespread in the Labour Party than many of us had understood even a few months ago.”