Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour does not tolerate anti-Semitism “in any form whatsoever” after the Chief Rabbi warned his failure to tackle the issue made him unfit to be prime minister.
The Labour leader insisted anti-Jewish racism was “vile and wrong” and that the party had a “rapid and effective system” for dealing with complaints.
But in a speech to launch Labour’s race and faith manifesto in Tottenham, north London, he made no direct mention of the comments by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
Instead he was forced to confront the comments in answer to a question by the media.
Mr Corbyn called on those who had criticism of the party to “engage”.
Mr Corbyn insisted when people have committed antisemitic acts they are “brought to book and if necessary expelled from the party or suspended or asked to be educated better about it”.
He added: “I ask those that think things have not been done correctly to tell me about it, talk to me about it, but, above all, engage.
“I’m very happy to engage with anybody. My whole life has been engagement with people. Sometimes you agree with them, sometimes you don’t.”
Labour peer Lord Dubs – who came to Britain in the 1930s as a child refugee fleeing the Nazis – told the audience at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, he believed the attack had been “unjustified and unfair”.
The Chief Rabbi launched an unprecedented intervention describing Jeremy Corbyn as “unfit for the office” and saying voters should study their conscience before backing him.
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Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the “overwhelming majority” of British Jews are “gripped by anxiety” over the outcome of the election, Mirvis writes, condemning what he calls the “utterly inadequate” response of the Labour leadership to anti-Semitism cases and the departure of Jewish MPs and staff from the party.
Asked directly about the comments in a q and a following the event, Mr Corbyn said: “There is no place whatsoever for anti-semitism in any shape or form, in any place whatsoever, in modern Britain and under a Labour government it will not be tolerated in any way.”
Labour peer Lord Falconer who was asked said it was a “failure of leadership” that there are still at least 130 outstanding serious cases.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme there were: “a lot of cases that have not been properly investigated”.
“We deserved an attack that strong, we need to deal with anti-Semitism properly. We are not dealing with the cases within the party.
“Still not, there are 130 cases that have been referred to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party… there are 130 cases of anti-Semitism that have been pending, some of them for years.
“Separately from those cases, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of cases that need to be investigated.”
He said: “It is a failure of leadership on the part of the Labour Party to say this has to be dealt with properly.” He said he would vote Labour, but added: “Labour has got to deal with its anti-Semitism problem.”
He added he hoped the Chief Rabbi’s “absolutely extraordinary but justified intervention will be listened to by my party”.
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Meanwhile the Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council told BBC Radio 5 Live that senior Jewish leaders have not had a meeting about anti-Semitism with the Labour leadership for over 18 months, despite the leadership suggesting they’d have met as early as July 2018.
The intervention from the Chief Rabbi provoked a show of solidarity from other faith leaders.
The Archbishop of Canterbury expressed support to the Chief Rabbi saying “voicing words that commit to a stand against antisemitism requires a corresponding effort in visible action”.
While a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: “Racism wherever it comes from – whether from the left or the right – is unacceptable and not enough is being done. We agree with the Chief Rabbi’s observation that ‘some politicians have shown courage but too many have sat silent’.
The Chief Rabbi’s unusual intervention has overshadowed the launch of Labour’s “race and faith” manifesto at an event in London this morning.
Alongside Shadow Cabinet members including Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler, Mr Corbyn unveiled the document which sets out plans for children to be taught about the impact of colonialism and the British empire in the national curriculum.
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Other policies include extending pay gap reporting to BAME groups to tackle pay discrimination and establishing a Race Equality Unit based within the Treasury which will review major spending announcements for its impact on BAME communities.
But the plans also include a commitment to make the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is currently investigating Labour anti-Semitism, “truly independent”.
During the event, which was book ended by performances from a Gospel choir, Dawn Butler, who speaks for the party on women and equalities paid tribute to a Muslim woman who had stood up for a Jewish man and his sons who were being attacked on the London underground.
