Jeremy Corbyn, who leads the UK’s Labour party allegedly said behind closed doors that evidence of anti-Semitism inside the left-wing political party has been “mislaid, ignored or not used,” according to The Sunday Times.
Dame Margaret Hodge, a member of Mr. Corbyn’s recorded a meeting with him in February where he made the remarks.
“The point of him (Falconer) is that he will look at the speed of dealing with cases, the administration of them, and the collation of the evidence before it is put before appropriate panels and things,” Mr. Corbyn said in the recording, according to the Sunday Times. “Because I was concerned that evidence was either being mislaid, ignored or not used and that there had to be some better system.”
Mr. Corbin also said that he receives a lot of death threats.
“You see, I get a huge amount of abusive stuff, mostly, some of it’s quite threatening, you know, murder and stuff,” he said.
The Jewish Labour movement recently passed a vote of no confidence in Mr. Corbyn over his handling of allegations of antisemitism which have engulfed Britain’s Labour party.
A spokesperson for the Labour party pushed back against claims that Mr. Corbyn and party leaders ignored allegations of antisemitism.
“This shows Jeremy Corbyn’s desire to make procedures as robust and efficient as possible and to rebuild trust with the Jewish community,” Mr. Corbyn’s spokesperson said. “We don’t comment on staffing matters. Complaints are being handled in the usual way.”
“The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms,” the party’s spokesperson continued. “All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
They added: “Jeremy Corbyn was referring to concerns about longstanding, inherited procedures and expressed his commitment to make them as robust and efficient as possible and to rebuild trust with the Jewish community–which is the right thing to do.”
“Before Jennie Formby became general secretary, we were alarmed that at times it seemed that former compliance unit staffers were targeting Jewish activists not in breach of rules while obstructing action on clear-cut cases of antisemitism,” a source inside the Labour party told Sky News.
“If Labour does not re-confirm its support for a confirmatory public vote on any Brexit deal in its manifesto then it will hemorrhage votes to parties who do have a clear message,” said Richard Corbett, who leads the Labour party in the European parliament.
