Anti-Semitism has again reared its ugly head and, yet again, it is in the heart of the Labour Party. One of Labour’s greatest heroes and former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, has been found guilty of expressing deeply offensive views. His punishment? Merely being prevented from holding an office he didn’t want - nothing more than a gentle slap on the wrist. He is still a fully paid up member of the Labour Party.
Red Ken is not some obscure figure that can be ignored. He has been at the heart of Labour for decades and has had an appalling track record that would have seen him kicked out of any decent political party years ago. He accused the Board of Deputies of British Jews of being “dominated by reactionaries and neo-fascists” and, as mayor of London, he welcomed an Islamist cleric who has defended Palestinian suicide bombings and issued a fatwa permitting the killing of pregnant Israeli women. Ken has even accused a Jewish reporter of behaving “just like a concentration camp guard” and has blamed the Jewish Chronicle for causing his current problems.
Jeremy Corbyn launched an enquiry into Labour’s anti-Semitism and the report found that “The Labour Party is not overrun by anti-Semitism”. Shami Chakrabarti, who wrote the report, was given a peerage for her good work by Jeremy Corbyn – and yet the Labour Party believes that there is nothing suspicious about this. Due to an anti-Semitic incident at the launch of Labour’s ‘nothing to see here’ report a Jewish Labour MP left the event in tears and disgust but Jeremy Corbyn didn’t think there was a problem. In fact, the man responsible for the anti-Semitic incident was a good friend of Jeremy Corbyn and they stopped for a nice chat together afterwards.
But just how deep does Labour’s problem go? Labour MP, Naz Shah, amongst other offensive messages, tweeted to say that the Jewish State of Israel should be “transported” to the US which is language all too similar to that used by Nazis during World War II. To be fair, Ms Shah has since acknowledged that her messages were anti-Semitic and gave a full apology.
It doesn’t stop there, however. Labour candidate for Manchester Gorton, Northwest MEP Afzal Khan, compared the Israel government to Nazis and celebrated the Iranian revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power.
There has been a rise in anti-Semitic attacks across the UK and we have a large Jewish population in Greater Manchester, which is why I recently met with the Community Security Trust. They work to provide security for Synagogues and other Jewish sites and also work on tackling and understanding anti-Semitism. The CST has highlighted the growth of anti-Semitism in recent years so we have to try and understand the wider context of how these values have been allowed to develop and spread.
After it was announced that Ken Livingstone has been allowed to stay in the Labour party, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said: “Labour has failed the Jewish community, it has failed its members and it has failed all those who believe in zero tolerance of anti-Semitism.” There couldn’t be a stronger indication of how let down the Jewish community and all those who believe anti-Semitism is unacceptable feel.
Labour politicians claim to be the most decent and anti-racist people alive and are always quick to accuse anyone concerned about immigration, or voted UKIP or to leave the EU as stupid bigoted racists. But how can anyone look at today’s Labour Party and not believe that racism exists in their own ranks?
Anyone who votes Labour will be voting to put Jeremy Corbyn one step closer to being Prime Minister. Any vote for Labour will be for the Party that embraces the values of Ken Livingstone, his many supporters in the Labour Party and the elected Labour officials who ensured that Red Ken – despite his vile beliefs – is still at the beating heart of Labour.