Jeremy Corbyn acted too late to ‘nip anti-Semitism in the bud’ claims Jewish peer

Lord Dubs - credit Paul Hartfield/Holyrood

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn allowed claims of anti-Semitism within Labour to “fester” before tackling them, Jewish peer Lord Alf Dubs has claimed.

Labour became embroiled in an internal row last year amid allegations of a rise in anti-Semitism within the party.

Some MPs opposed to Corbyn claimed anti-Semetic views had infiltrated the party, while the leader’s supporters had dismissed it as a smear campaign.

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Speaking to Holyrood, Labour peer Alf Dubs, who fled Nazi Czechoslovakia as a child, said it was “deeply shocking” the party is arguing about anti-Semitism at all.

“I think Corbyn should have nipped that in the bud quickly and I think he failed to do that,” he said. “I think it festered and the result is that there’s a perception that the Labour party is anti-Semitic which is not true.”

Dubs pointed to a row in universities over the definition of the term.

Recently Prime Minister Theresa May called on universities in the UK to “investigate and swiftly address” anti-Semitism on their campuses, while The University of Exeter and the University of Central Lancashire recently cancelled student events to mark the pro-Palestinian Israel Apartheid Week.

Exeter had also featured in coverage after a swastika and a “Rights for Whites” notice was found in student halls.

“There are people linking criticism of Israel to being anti-Semitic,” Dubs told Holyrood.

“I’ve criticised the Israeli government, for goodness sake. I’ve been tear gassed by the Israeli army when I was on a visit to the west bank, but with my background I’m not going to be anti-Semitic am I?”

He added:  “We have to be absolutely clear - we can criticise some of the Israeli government for some of the awful policies they’re following and at the same time be resolutely against anti-Semitism.”

Dubs said he backs Corbyn because “he’s the leader we’ve got”, but described his re-election last year as part of the “anti-politics” mood “characterised by the tea party and Trump in the states, as characterised by UKIP here, and in a way characterised by the SNP who established themselves in an anti-Westminster establishment position.”

This week former London mayor Ken Livingstone faces Labour’s National Constitutional Committee after he was suspended from the party a year ago over comments about Hitler supporting Zionism “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.