Dame Margaret Hodge 'will quit Labour if she is suspended over clash with Jeremy Corbyn'

A senior Labour MP has claimed there are “no circumstances” in which Dame Margaret Hodge will now remain with the party – because the leadership is determined to discipline her for labelling Jeremy Corbyn an “antisemite and a racist.”

In contrast to claims by shadow chancellor John McDonnell that he and Mr Corbyn wished to “resolve” the dispute with Dame Margaret, the source said the legal letter sent by her after she had received a disciplinary letter had “been met in return with a heavy response” from the party.

The source added that the Labour leadership had “completely miscalculated” in targeting Dame Margaret, who was “determined not to give in to them”. The letter sent by law firm Mishcon de Reya on behalf of Dame Margaret had “put her on a collision course with the Party” insisted the source, because the party would not back down and neither would the Barking MP.

“This is what they want”, the source added. “This is how they get rid of enemies.”

The JC has also learned that, were Dame Margaret to be suspended, she would resign the whip.

This would then spark a show of solidarity which would result in other MPs also severing their links with Mr Corbyn and sitting as independent parliamentarians.

A member of Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet also told the JC that they feared the doomsday scenario for Dame Margaret and other leading members of the Parliamentary Labour Party was rapidly approaching.

The source said: “This is the point in history where it is essential to stay and fight. Until it isn’t.”

On Wednesday, in a week of turmoil for Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader faced renewed calls for an investigation by his own party after footage emerged of him praising the release of Hamas terrorists on Iranian state TV in 2012.

Appearing on the Press TV show “Remember Palestine”, Mr Corbyn spoke of more than 1,000 convicted terrorists, who had recently been released by Israel as part of a prisoner swap as “brothers.”

He also questioned whether there was a “serious case” against any of the Palestinians released.

The group of Hamas terrorists had been convicted of the murder of almost 600 Israelis and were released in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who had been captured and held in captivity by Hamas.

Mr Corbyn said: “Well, you have to ask the question why they’re in prison in the first place and since the releases that took place after the hunger strike I met many of the brothers including the brother who has been speaking here when they came out of prison when I was in Doha earlier this year, and you just realise that this mass imprisonment of Palestinians is actually part of a much bigger political game.

“They are used as bargaining chips in political debate and political discussion, and because if there was the serious case against the individual prisoners that Israel claims there have been, then they wouldn’t win an appeal, they wouldn’t get out, they wouldn’t be released, but they are released in very large numbers.”

Joan Ryan, the MP and chairwoman of Labour Friends of Israel, demanded an investigation into Mr Corbyn’s comments saying: “It is beyond abhorrent that the leader of the Labour party would ever welcome the release of such depraved terrorists.”

Mr Corbyn was also accused of breaching any “form of normal decency” after hosting a 2010 event in Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day where speakers compared Israel’s treatment of Gaza to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews.

The Labour leader was forced to make an unprecedented apology, admitting he had appeared with people “whose views I completely reject” after being quizzed about the 2010 by The Times.

The main speech at the event, ‘Never Again for Anyone – Auschwitz to Gaza’, was given by Hajo Meyer, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. He repeatedly compared Israeli action in Gaza to the mass killing of Jewish people in the Holocaust.

The event was covered by the JC at the time but on Tuesday, amid a growing row over antisemitism within Labour, Mr Corbyn was confronted about it by The Times.

Mr Corbyn told the paper: “Views were expressed at the meeting which I do not accept or condone.

“In the past, in pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and peace in Israel/Palestine, I have on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject. I apologise for the concerns and anxiety that this has caused.”

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “On Holocaust Memorial Day, when people from all backgrounds, parties and faiths came together to remember the unique evil of the Holocaust, Mr Corbyn chose to chair an event undermining its very purpose - deliberately distorting of the truth of history’s greatest crime.”

At the time in 2010, representatives of the Jewish community said the event was “despicable” and had “crossed a dangerous line.”

Further details unearthed by The Times revealed that a Palestinian activist, Haidar Eid, who spoke at the meeting via a satellite link-up, reportedly said: “The world was absolutely wrong to think that Nazism was defeated in 1945. Nazism has won because it has finally managed to Nazify the consciousness of its own victims.”

On Monday, the JC published a recording of Peter Willsman, Mr Corbyn’s ally on the party’s national executive committee, in which he claimed Jewish ‘Trump fanatics’ were making false claims of antisemitism with Labour.

Mr Corbyn was present at the July 17 meeting — but sat mute as Mr Willsman launched his angry rant.

When the JC asked Mr Corbyn’s office for a comment on the leader’s silence at the meeting, we received no response.

Labour’s Leader in the Lords and Shadow Cabinet member Baroness Smith on Wednesday become the latest senior figure within the Party to suggest Mr Willsman should consider his position on the NEC.

Mr Willsman had issued a statement apologising for his remarks on Tuesday — but Baroness Smith said: “I don’t think it goes far enough. I think he ought to consider his position.”

On Wednesday evening the national co-ordinating group of Momentum announced they had withdrawn support for Mr Willsman in Labour’s current NEC elections.

The move meant the left-wing group’s ‘slate’ for the election to Labour’s ruling body now consisted of only eight names.