John McDonnell concedes antisemitism has hurt Labour’s campaign
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has admitted that the accusations of antisemitism engulfing the Labour party have hurt its General Election campaign.
“I worry that this has had its effect,” McDonnell told the BBC’s Marr show on the final Sunday before the 12 December polling day.
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McDonnell’s interview with broadcaster Andrew Marr came just hours after the Jewish Labour Movement – a group affiliated with Labour – said it could not campaign for Jeremy Corbyn’s party during the election.
Mike Katz, the chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, today wrote in the Observer that the party was “failing its Jewish members and tolerating antisemitism”.
McDonnell told broadcaster Andrew Marr: “I apologise to the Jewish community for the suffering we’ve inflicted on them.”
He claimed Labour has “done everything, I think, we can possibly do” to tackle the issue that has dogged the party under Corbyn’s leadership.
The shadow chancellor’s comments came after leaked documents appeared in the Sunday Times last weekend that said there more than 130 outstanding complaints about antisemitism, many from over a year ago.
McDonnell said the figure was now “well below” that number. He said he saw a number of cases reported “in the papers… those people have been expelled or suspended”.
In the leaked report, one Jewish member reported being called “child killer” and “Zio scum” at a party meeting. Another said a speaker at a 2017 Labour conference fringe event said people should be allowed to dicuss whether the Holocaust happened.
The shadow chancellor said he hoped that “having gone through this horrible, horrible period, we come out of it now actually showing respect to the Jewish community”.
The Conservative party has also been accused of racism, with critics saying it has a problem with Islamophobia.
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Tory chairman James Cleverly today apologised for Islamophobia in the party. “I’m sorry and I’m sorry when people do or say things that are wrong,” he told BBC Radio 5 live.
“But I am confident that my party has a robust mechanism for dealing with it,” he said.