Nicole Lampert

The only way to solve Labour’s anti-Semitism problem

From our UK edition

'The Labour Party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (except, it seems, Jews)'. So says an unprecedented advert in the Guardian today, which is signed by more than 60 Labour peers. It could hardly be more damning. Yet while the advert is shocking, it stops short of pointing out the only way that Labour can solve its anti-Semitism crisis for good: by getting rid of Jeremy Corbyn. Labour peers who backed the statement aren't the only ones to fail to state the obvious. Deputy leader Tom Watson, who says he favours the introduction of an independent complaints procedure, has also fallen short.

The shame of Labour MPs who campaigned for Lisa Forbes

From our UK edition

How seriously is Labour taking the investigation into its anti-Semitism problem by the UK equalities watchdog? Well, in the early hours of this morning it was celebrating the election in Peterborough of a woman accused of anti-Jewish racism. Her campaign had been supported by around 60 Labour MPs as well as hundreds of activists. Just over a week after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched its investigation into Labour, we now have in Lisa Forbes an MP who both the anti-racism group Hope not Hate and the Labour party’s Jewish affiliate, The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), are demanding has the whip removed before she even steps into Westminster. Forbes has insisted that she believes anti-Semitism is ‘abhorrent’.

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem is losing its power to shock

From our UK edition

A Labour activist – since elected a councillor – sharing neo-Nazi material declaring that 'the Jews declared war on Germany in 1933'. A video of a Labour MP rousing a rabble with the incendiary suggestion that 'Zionism is the enemy of peace'. An activist for the self-proclaimed anti-racist party suggesting a march on their local synagogue. The secretary of Jewish Voice for Labour telling a crowd of pro-Palestinian marchers that Jews are ‘in the gutter’. In isolation, all of these are jaw-dropping and deeply alarming. That they all happened – or emerged – in a short period of time following years of similarly scandalous behaviour means that a certain ennui about Labour anti-Semitism has set in.