Peer blames Corbyn for Labour anti-Semitism

LONDON: A senior Labour peer has blamed his party’s “abject failure” to deal with anti-Semitism on its leadership.

Lord Harris of Haringey said it was “shocking” and “humiliating” to find Labour subject to formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). He blamed a “failure of leadership” for the party’s inability to root out anti-Semitism more speedily and called on colleagues to help “cleanse our party” of it.

Lord Harris said there had been shocking examples of anti-Semitism around the world but he wanted to focus on nearer to home and the “deep sense of shame” he felt about the Labour Party. In a debate on anti-Semitism, the former leader of the Labour group on the London Assembly said the party had a proud history of combating racism and discrimination and of opposing anti-Semitism.

“It is profoundly shocking for those of us brought up in that tradition to find our party now the subject of a formal investigation by the EHRC,” he told peers. Lord Harris said he had written as chair of the Labour peers’ group to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over three months ago expressing “alarm at the continuing failure to remove anti-Semites from our party” but he had not “had the courtesy of a reply”. He said “any anti-Semite in the Labour Party is one too many,” adding: “The Labour Party’s abject failure to deal with anti-Semitism effectively over the last three years cannot be ascribed to inadequate resourcing of the complaints and compliance function in the head office”. The failure was a “political one”, he told peers. “It is a failure of leadership.” Lord Harris said Labour peers must take on the task of “cleansing our party of anti-Semitism and those who condone and foster it”.

Tory former minister Baroness Warsi joined peers from all sides of the House in condemning the global rise in anti-Semitism. “Anti-Semitism will only stop rearing its ugly head when all of us, whatever faith we belong to or none, oppose it and challenge it,” she said. “The rise of anti-Semitism is real and it is deeply disturbing.” Lady Warsi said British Jews did not need to “fight this battle alone”, promising to stand in solidarity with them and vowing: “This is a fight for all of us.”

Labour peer Lord Campbell-Savours rejected accusations that his party was institutionally racist and did not believe its leader was prejudiced. He said: “People simply don’t understand what Corbyn is all about. He is obsessed with human rights and sometimes he gets the nuances completely wrong.”

Baroness Tonge, who sits as a non-affiliated peer, agreed and said: “Jeremy Corbyn is not anti-Semitic. He is a man who feels passionately about human rights and like me does not always express it in the right sort of way, but nevertheless he cares deeply.” Lady Tonge also said she was “sick” of the accusations of anti-Semitism levelled against her and the “filthy abuse” she received online. She told peers: “I wish you to know I am not anti-Semitic.”

Labour’s spokesman Lord Collins of Highbury said the process of dealing with complaints of anti-Semitism in the party had been too slow and far too often the individuals concerned had only been suspended when the cases received publicity. Reforms made by Labour to address the problem had not been adequate, he said.

Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, replying to the debate, said it could not be ignored and to prevent the rise of anti-Semitism required everyone to stand together and oppose it. He said that if there were instances of bigotry or Islamophobia in the Conservative Party it must be “investigated fully and called out”.