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MP Joan Ryan reveals death threats since leaving Labour over 'culture of antisemitism'
The MP says of Jew-hate: 'Before Jeremy Corbyn became leader we never had this problem'
March 3, 2019 14:40
The MP says of Jew-hate: 'Before Jeremy Corbyn became leader we never had this problem'
March 3, 2019 14:40Joan Ryan, the MP who quit Labour last month over the party’s “culture of antisemitism”, has called the police after receiving two death threats in the wake of her departure.
Ms Ryan became the eighth Labour MP to quit the party last month and has since had to report two threats made against her – one of which was hand delivered to her office in parliament.
The chair of Labour Friends of Israel received an unstamped handwritten note to her Commons office, which branded her a “****-sucking, Jewish c*** who defected to Israel”.
It said she should be raped and “set on fire”, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Another letter sent to her constituency office in Enfield North said: “Stop telling lies about Jeremy Corbyn – he is a decent man, you lying Jew whore. You need to be shoved right back in the ovens.”
Ms Ryan said she also reported the registration number of a black car that was parked near her constituency office with three men inside.
The MP said she feared they were deliberately keeping her under surveillance.
Ms Ryan, 63, is not Jewish but said Labour had "become infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism," under Jeremy Corbyn when she left.
In a letter written to the Labour leader, Ms Ryan, said she was "forced" to resign from the party she joined 25 years ago because the "values that led me to join" are now the "same values that have led me to leave it today."
She said the "huge shame" of antisemitism did not exist in the party before his election as leader. "No previous Labour leader would have allowed this huge shame to befall the party."
She added that Mr Corbyn was “presiding over a culture of antisemitism and hatred of Israel”.
Attacking Mr Corbyn's failure to deal with Jew-hate, Ms Ryan added that Mr Corbyn's "mindset, ideology and worldview that tolerates antisemitism poses a threat to the British public, Jew and non-Jew alike."
Speaking about the letters, she has received said: “That people can send such filth-laden, disgusting messages is a shocking testament to how low our politics has now sunk.
"But the fact that some people think they can do so explains why many of us felt we had to quit the Labour Party last week.
“My main concern now is for the safety of my staff who put in so much hard work in the constituency and in Parliament."
Ms Ryan, who has joined the Independent Group of MPs, is also awaiting the results of a police examination of Commons CCTV after she was sent another malicious letter last September.
She received a hand-delivered note mentioned a forthcoming visit to Cyprus – which raised concerns that it was placed by someone with access to her private diary.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Ms Ryan argued that the reason the Labour party has failed to deal with antisemitism is because “they don’t want to acknowledge the problem and they can’t acknowledge it because it is part and parcel of their politics.
“I don’t think the Labour Party is going to be able to resolve this problem.”
She criticised Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby who told MPs at one meeting not once but twice it would be impossible to “eradicate” Labour antisemitism.
“So the question is how much antisemitism is ok then,” Ms Ryan asked. “And how much do we have to put up with?
“It is completely wrong she should take such an approach and it is completely wrong they are not putting in place process that deal with the problem.”
She said the fact that Labour had rejected attempts made by Deputy Leader Tom Watson to set up a system where Labour can be “completely transparent," about its antisemitism complaints procedures "says everything about their commitment and determination to deal with the problem.”
She added: “Before Jeremy Corbyn became leader we never had this problem. I have no confidence that they can or will eradicate it.”
It comes as Jewish MP Luciana Berger revealed in an interview with The Times that, after she left Labour because it was "institutionally antisemitic", a former party member made threats against the life of her unborn child.
