Labour MPs attack Len McCluskey and Mark Serwotka in fresh anti-Semitism row
3 min read
Labour MPs have accused two senior union chiefs of trying to downplay the party's anti-Semitism problems.
Wes Streeting and Louise Ellman rounded on Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and PCS boss Mark Serwotka over comments they have made suggesting the row has been confected to attack Jeremy Corbyn.
Earlier this year, Mr McCluskey accused the Jewish community of showing “truculent hostility” towards Labour and described the party’s anti-Semitism crisis as “mood music that was created by people who were trying to undermine" the leader.
Meanwhile, Mr Serwotka, who is also president of the TUC, recently claimed that Israel may have been behind the controversy as a way of deflecting attention from its actions in Palestine.
Mr Streeting said the pair's comments had “no place in the Labour movement”.
Speaking at a Jewish Labour Movement fringe meeting at the party's conference in Liverpool, he accused Mr McCluskey of actively creating “the conditions in which anti-Semitism can be allowed to fester".
Appealing directly to the Unite chief, he said: “You know Len, when Jeremy Corbyn says there is a problem with anti-Semitism in the Labour party maybe it’s time you got behind our leader and resolved to do something about it.”
Turning his fire on Mr Serwotka, Mr Streeting added: “Your remarks the other week at the TUC congress have no place in the Labour party and no place in the Labour movement.”
Jewish MP Ms Ellman echoed her colleague’s remarks, hitting out at the “sinister entry of major trade union leaders” into the anti-Semitism debate and calling on the pair to back down.
She said: “I think they are entering into very, very dangerous waters. They are playing with fire and I, again, call on them to withdraw those appalling statements.”
Also speaking at the event, Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield – who faced a “motion of censure” from local party activists after speaking out over anti-Semitism – said those guilty of racism should be reminded of where it can lead by visiting Nazi concentration camps.
Describing a visit to Auschwitz – a former death camp in Poland – Ms Duffield said: “It changed everything I thought I knew about the situation and being there in person was a profound experience…
“I defy anyone who repeats any of the anti-Semitism tropes that we see all of the time in the social media arena at the moment to go there and to still say and feel those same things.
“And I think they should be sent there actually by the Labour party… to see what people went through.”
Momentum founder and Corbyn ally Jon Lansman also spoke at the event, saying Labour had “been on a journey” over anti-Semitism and expressing regret that the party had not adopted an internationally accepted definition of anti-Jewish abuse sooner.
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