Hollywood star Eddie Marsan says Jeremy Corbyn should be 'disqualified from being PM' over anti-semitism
3 min read
Hollywood actor Eddie Marsan said Jeremy Corbyn should be “disqualified from being Prime Minister” over anti-semitism.
The Happy Go Lucky star and former Labour member delivered a damning attack on the party’s leader, saying he will be voting for the Liberal Democrats at next month’s election.
He said the only conclusion to draw from Mr Corbyn’s actions is that he is “either anti-semitic or ignorant”.
Mr Marsan was speaking at the launch of the Lib Dems’ equalities plan alongside two former Labour MPs who quit the party.
One of those, Luciana Berger, said she was "hounded" out by anti-Jewish racisim and said her former boss Mr Corbyn had “indulged in anti-semitic activity”.
And she implored the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to publish the result of their investigation into anti-Semitism in Labour before polling day “so it can inform voters’ decisions” about the party.
Mr Marsan said he has voted for Labour in every general election since 1987 after being inspired to join the party by its former former leader Neil Kinnock.
But he cannot back them anymore, accusing Mr Corbyn of defending an anti-semitic mural and being “disingenuous” on Brexit.
He added: “If you invite a man to the House of Commons who believes that Jews drink the blood of Gentile children, and then you refer to that man as an honoured citizen, then you are either anti-Semitic or you are ignorant.
“If you don't care if that is divisive or offensive then you are anti-semitic.”
This was a reference to Sheikh Raed Salah, a preacher who was jailed for racist incitement and funding Hamas, of who Mr Corbyn said his “voice must be heard”.
Mr Marsan said Labour-supporting friends had told him to “hold their nose and vote for Corbyn”, but he claimed the way out of this “dilemma” was to instead vote for the Lib Dems.
He said Jo Swinson’s party “are the inheritors of the New Labour legacy”, saying backing them in this election feels “really good”, before adding bizarrely: “It’s like a political enema.”
The actor, who appeared in the Sherlock Holmes films, also attacked the Prime Minister over a column about women who wear the full face veil which was criticised as being Islamophobic.
He said: “Boris Johnson can employ dog-whistle politics and give a nudge-nudge wink-wink to the white racists that he wants to vote for him by saying calling Muslim women to wear the hijab pillar boxes.
“But for the Muslim woman who's got to walk down the street the next day and face abuse that's terrifying.”
Asked whether Mr Corbyn was “anti-semitic or ignorant”, Ms Berger said: "I can't look into Jeremy Corbyn's heart, I can only judge him by his actions.
"And certainly by his actions and by the platforms he's shared and the people he's invited and the things he's done, and the things he hasn't done: he's indulged in anti-semitic activity."
She added: "And you can get it wrong once, and maybe twice at a push. But for the number of examples that we know about, it's unacceptable."
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