Report finds Labour responsible for three-fifths of online anti-Semitism, as tensions surface ahead of conference vote
Labour has been accused of having the worst record on anti-Semitism of any political party in the UK, ahead of a vote to determine whether members should be expelled for holding such views.
The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) has this morning published an independent analysis of four million social media posts which contained anti-Semitic content. It found that 61 per cent of cases came from Labour officials, eight times higher than second-placed parties.
The parties of the left were responsible for 80 per cent of cases, including Liberal Democrats, the Greens and the SNP, as well as Labour, the research also found. Ukip also featured highly, and the Conservatives were “not immune from criticism”.
But it was Labour who drew the bulk of condemnation for its inability to put a stop to the matter.
“The supposedly anti-racist Labour Party has shamed itself by failing to firmly and consistently address anti-Semitism, even proving incapable of expelling a Holocaust revisionist, a senior MP who said that “Jewish money” controls the Conservative Party, and another prominent official who claimed that Jews were “among the chief financiers of the slave trade”,’ campaigners said.
“The Labour Party has compounded its anti-Semitism problem by shrouding all disciplinary matters in secrecy under guidelines introduced in the wake of Baroness Chakrabarti’s report into anti-Semitism, thus concealing the fact that it has failed to address anti-Semitism within its ranks.”
The CAA’s report has been published to coincide with a vote taking place at the Labour party conference this morning, which will enable the party to potentially expel members for expressing anti-Semitic beliefs.
The proposed change would also mean a tougher stance on sexism, Islamophobia, racism and homophobia.
At the moment, party members cannot be disciplined for “the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions”.
The new anti-Semitism motion has been given the backing of party leader Jeremy Corbyn, in acknowledgement of the problem.
But the CAA said this motion did not go far enough, noting “the repeated failures of Labour to apply existing sanctions, the inability of the leadership to recognise post-Holocaust anti-Semitism, and the secrecy surrounding all disciplinary cases as recommended by the Chakrabarti report”.
“Unless these matters are addressed, new measures will be meaningless,” it added.
Last night the issue erupted during two separate fringe meetings in Brighton.
At one event, speakers called for the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) to be “kicked out” of the party, saying Israel had committed “genocide” in Gaza.
Israel and Israelis were compared to apartheid-era South Africa and Nazi Germany, while some refused to name the country, calling it only “the Zionist state”.
At another event, organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, John Cryer, the party chairman, said: “I have seen some of the tweets from Labour Party members and I am not kidding you, it makes your hair stand on end. This stuff is redolent of the 1930s.”
Wes Streeting said: “People say there is no anti-Semitism problem. We see it there in black and white, we have heard it on the fringes.
“There are too many people in the party – including at the top – who have adopted an ostrich strategy, saying ‘this is not a problem, this is not an anti-Semitism issue’.”