Shadow minister Barry Gardiner attempted to apologise for Labour’s failings over antisemitism, saying: “How can it be that we are struggling so badly to eradicate antisemitism from our own membership?”
February 21, 2019 09:49
ByLee Harpin, Lee Harpin and Daniel Sugarman
Shadow international trade minister Barry Gardiner revealed on Wednesday that he had written to Labour general secretary Jennie Formby to lodge a formal complaint about the decision to readmit left-wing firebrand Derek Hatton into the Labour Party.
Within minutes of his speech in the Commons debate on antisemitism, it was confirmed that Mr Hatton had been suspended by the Labour Party.
Mr Gardiner said he had seen social media messages posted by the former Liverpool City Council leader which said Jewish people with “any humanity” should criticise Israel.
On Monday, only hours after Luciana Berger had announced her resignation from Labour, Mr Hatton’s application to rejoin Labour was confirmed as having been aproved by party bosses.
Labour MP Ian Austin said the decision to readmit Mr Hatton showed how far the party had moved outside the mainstream of British politics.
In his speech, Mr Gardiner attempted to apologise for Labour’s failings over antisemitism, saying: “How can it be that we are struggling so badly to eradicate antisemitism from our own membership?”
The Labour Party, he said, has not had “adequate procedures in place” to act swiftly against “that small minority of members” who have sometimes expressed antisemitic views.
“I want on behalf of my party to publicly apologise to the Jewish community, that we have let you down.”
Mr Gardiner also said that Ms Berger, one of the eight Labour MPs who quit the party this week, has suffered “disgraceful treatment”.
“I regret deeply that she has left our party. I regret most of all the antisemitic abuse which made her feel it was necessary to do so,” he added.
He described her as a “kind and loving person” who has been “bullied by antisemites to a point that most of us would not have had the strength to bear”.
“I wish she’d stayed and helped us defeat the evil in our party,” he said, but added that whichever party she represented she should have the “unqualified solidarity” of MPs.
His words came after another Labour MP had been forced into an apology for suggesting that the Independent Group might have been secretly funded by Israel.
In behaviour that seemed to go to the heart of Labour’s failure to tackle antisemitic discourse, Ruth George, the MP for High Peak, “unreservedly and wholeheartedly apologised” on Tuesday after a Facebook post in which she said that “support (for the breakaway group) from the State of Israel, which supports both Conservative and Labour Friends of Israel of which Luciana (Berger) was chair is possible and I would not condemn those who suggest it.”
Both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell struggled to contain the anger within the party over their continued failing to tackle to Jew-hate in the aftermath of Monday’s resignations.
On Wednesday, when asked on the BBC2 Politics Live show if he agreed with comments made by Tom Watson that Luciana Berger had been driven out of the party by “racist bullies”, shadow cabinet member Jon Trickett, who is also a member of Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) said: “I’ve not seen that evidence”.
But comments which appeared to put him at odds with Jeremy Corbyn, Mr McDonnell said Labour should launch a “mammoth, massive listening exercise” and address the concerns that led to eight Labour MPs resigning. Responding to comments on Monday by deputy leader Tom Watson that more MPs could leave unless Labour tackled antisemitism properly, Mr McDonnell said: “I think we are finding a way forward but it’s got to be on the basis of taking the advice of people like Tom Watson and the Parliamentary Labour Party and others.”
He added: “The Labour leadership — and I’m part of that — we need to keep listening, bring people in, talk to them.
“If there are issues that we have to address we will address them. If it’s about the style of the leadership we will address that. If it’s about policy we will listen to that as well.”
Last week, however, Mr McDonnell had suggested that Ms Berger had faced abuse because she had failed to deny rumours she was preparing to quit, rather than because she is Jewish.
The JC has also learned that McDonnell repeatedly invited the man at the centre of allegations of antisemitic bullying of Ms Berger into his inner circle to discuss Labour’s policies.
Leaked emails and minutes from meetings show that Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, the chair of Liverpool Wavertree Labour Party, was among a select group of NHS campaigners consulted by the Shadow Chancellor.
Meanwhile in responding to the departures Mr Corbyn made no reference to the MPs’ concerns — while a briefing document sent to Labour MPs by the leader’s office and seen by the JC defended the party’s approach to Brexit and antisemitism.
“I regret that seven MPs decided they would no longer remain part of the Labour Party. I thank them for their work,” Mr Corbyn said on Monday, before Ms Ryan had left.
On BBC2’s Newsnight, Angela Rayner attempted to defend Mr Corbyn. She said: “I don’t think the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic or racist.
“If I felt that Jeremy Corbyn accepted that abuse in our party, I wouldn’t be a part of it. I wouldn’t be a part of his Shadow Cabinet.” But I don’t believe that is the case.”
