A senior Jewish Labour MP today accused Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle of intervening to protect his allies from complaints of anti-Semitism.
Dame Margaret Hodge claimed the Labour leader’s advisers have shielded “mates” from being suspended from the party.
She said she had seen emails which suggested that one adviser, Laura Murray, opposed the suspension of a member accused of praising a notorious mural showing anti-Semitic caricatures of gloating bankers.
Dame Margaret also revealed the shocking contents of anti-Semitic comments made by Labour members she believes have escaped serious punishment.
Labour today said: “Any suggestion that staff in the Leaders’ Office overturned recommendations on individual cases is categorically untrue.”
According to Dame Margaret, one activist said “a swastika is appropriate because Israel is a fascist state” and another spoke of a “love fest” between Zionists and Nazis. She believes neither was suspended.
She told the Radio 4 Today programme: “What is so awful about this is that Jeremy always proclaims zero tolerance of anti-Semitism.
“When it comes to the actual cases, if they are his mates, he doesn’t demonstrate zero-tolerance. He claims no political interference in these cases — there is.
“I’ve now seen so much evidence there is definitely political interference, so trust in him has gone and actually misleading me, or himself being misled, really undermines my trust for him.”
Labour today said Dame Margaret had launched a “deeply unfair attack” and disputed that Ms Murray had attempted to overrule a suspension, saying she had instead been asking questions around the case.
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They also said that since Jennie Formby became general secretary of the party in April 2018 there has been complete separation between the complaints system and Mr Corbyn’s political advisers. The cases Dame Margaret refers to predate Ms Formby’s tenure, they said.
The former minister said: “I’ve got evidence that under the new general secretary of the Labour Party those very close to Jeremy Corbyn, his inner circle, were involved in discussing cases of anti-Semitic abuse and in lowering how those people were dealt with.
“One of these cases — the individual against whom the complaint was made — said: ‘Actually I think it’s a great mural. No way should it be painted over. It should be preserved.’
“The officials dealing with that — the complaints unit suggested that person be suspended — that was overruled by those very close to Jeremy Corbyn in his office.”
A Labour Party source said: “Selecting a handful of cases from nearly a year ago is seriously misleading.
“This is a deeply unfair attack on staff working in good faith to apply the Party rule book to individual cases and get through the backlog of unresolved complaints Jennie Formby inherited.”
