Politics

Ousted Labour MP says leadership frontrunners aren’t fit for office after ‘failing’ Jews over anti-Semitism.


AN OUSTED Jewish Labour MP last night warned no shadow cabinet minister is fit to be party leader because of their woeful failure to tackle racism.

Ruth Smeeth tore into leadership frontrunners like Rebecca Long Bailey and Keir Starmer for being “silent” as the party became infected by anti-Semitism.

 Ruth Smeeth laid into the Labour leadership hopefuls

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Ruth Smeeth laid into the Labour leadership hopefulsCredit: Alamy Live News

In a blistering attack, she said Labour frontbenchers have “allowed racism in the Labour Party to be normalised” and said the next leader should be a backbencher.

She also lashed Jeremy Corbyn for unleashing a “Pandora’s box” of anti-Jew hate and warned it could take a generation to tackle it.

Ms Smeeth was the victim of vile anti-Semitic death and rape threats while in Parliament, but lost her seat of Stoke-on-Trent North in the Tory landslide.

She stormed: “No currently serving member of the shadow cabinet deserves our vote.

“They have been timid when we needed strength.”

She added: “They have failed us when we needed them most. They enabled Mr Corbyn and his friends to make us a target.

“Their silence at a time of crisis was indifference to our pain. Their calculated gamble was that it was better to be seen to serve with Mr Corbyn that be seen to challenge Mr Corbyn.

“They chose to sit by when we needed them to stand up. If they were not our allies when we needed them, we should not be their ally when they want us.”

The former MP said backbenchers like Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy, Dan Jarvis or Yvette Cooper are all more worthy of the leadership than the Labour frontbench.

Ms Smeeth also warned that Labour faces a mammoth task of stamping out the sick racism which has infected its ranks.

In an article for the Jewish Chronicle, the parliamentary chairwoman of the Jewish Labour Movement said the battle could take years.

She said: “My biggest fear after all the horror, after the abuse, the attacks, the stunts and the threats is that Pandora’s box has been opened and it will take us a generation to ensure that anti-Semitism is no longer part of mainstream political discourse.

“A generation to stop the conspiracy theories and tropes that dominate our social media and before Jews can stand for public office without receiving death threats from within their own party for the sole ‘crime’ of having the audacity to be Jewish.”

Her attack comes as Labour gears up for a bitter leadership battle as the race to replace Mr Corbyn heats up.

Many fuming Labour MPs believe party chiefs are plotting to rush through the contest at lightning speed in a bid to get Corbynista candidate Ms Long Bailey installed in the top job.

Labour’s Ruth Smeeth says ‘we’re the racist party’ in furious rant and says Corbyn should’ve gone MONTHS ago 





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