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Margaret Hodge: 'This abuse is not normal'
The Labour MP lists the slurs she received from Jeremy Corbyn supporters after appearing on Radio 4's Today
November 19, 2020 16:42
The Labour MP lists the slurs she received from Jeremy Corbyn supporters after appearing on Radio 4's Today
November 19, 2020 16:42Dame Margaret Hodge has detailed the venomous attacks she has been subjected to on social media after the whip was removed from Jeremy Corbyn.
Listing the slurs she had received, some of which were openly antisemitic, the Jewish Labour Movement's parliamentary chair tweeted on Thursday:"This abuse is not normal."
Amongst the list of insults were calls for her death, claims she was a member of a “rich and powerful Jewish dynasty”, a “Mossad agent”, “Zionist hag” and a “Palestinian child murderer.”
Dame Margaret wrote: “This abuse is not normal. This is why zero tolerance matters. This is why people have to take responsibility for their actions.”
The JC had earlier revealed how the Labour veteran had threatened to quit the party on Tuesday night after Mr Corbyn was reinstated after his 19-day suspension.
In an angry telephone conversation with Sir Keir Starmer it is understood that the MP for Barking said she would leave the party and take members of JLM with her if he did not remove the whip from Mr Corbyn.
Sir Keir announced the decision on Wednesday, leaving the former leader sitting as an independent MP.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, Dame Margaret confirmed Sir Keir’s actions meant “I wouldn’t have to leave the party.”
Describing how she felt when a Labour NEC panel cleared Mr Corbyn’s return, she said: “I can’t describe the feeling of rejection I and other Jewish members experienced.”
Dame Margaret also slammed suggestions that Mr Corbyn was now himself the victim of attacks, adding the Jewish people in the party such as herself were the victims of antisemitism.
“The terrible truth is that he constantly makes himself the centre of the argument,” she told Today.
“What we need to root out is antisemitism, and for as long as he is one of the individuals who refuses to accept the extent of antisemitism in the party, who constantly says that people like me have been politically motivated and are attacking him personally instead of attacking the antisemitism that he expressly tolerates, and has allowed to spread right through the party – that’s really the problem.”
She added that her appearance on Radio 4 would pre-empt another round of antisemitic tweets directed at her. She also repeated her claim that Labour’s disciplinary process for dealing with antisemites was “broken”.
The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, also blamed a “politicised” disciplinary process for Mr Corbyn’s readmittance to the Labour Party.
She also told Today: “It’s a matter of huge regret and shame to my party that it found we were wanting. We have to sort out that system. It cannot remain as a politicised system.”
