Labour peers could hold vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn over anti-semitism row
2 min read
Labour peers could hold a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn over his handling of the party's anti-semitism crisis.
The party's group in the House of Lords will hold a meeting on Monday to decide whether to go ahead with the ballot.
If they go ahead with the plan, the ballot will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the result expected to be announced that night.
The latest twist in the anti-semitism row came after Baroness Hayter, Labour's deputy leader in the Lords, was sacked for comparing Mr Corbyn's leadership to "the last days of Hitler".
She was also one of four senior Labour peers who signed a letter to the party leader urging him to tackle its "endemic" anti-semitism problem.
And on Wednesday, 60 other Labour peers took the unprecedented step of taking out an advert in The Guardian telling Mr Corbyn he had he had "failed the test of leadership" over his failure to tackle the crisis.
It said: "The Labour party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (*except, it seems, Jews). This is your legacy, Mr Corbyn."
But a Labour spokesperson said: "Regardless of false and misleading claims by those hostile to Jeremy Corbyn's politics, Labour is taking decisive action against anti-semitism."
In 2016, Labour MPs voted 172-40 in favour of a motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn.
That led to a leadership challenge by Owen Smith, but Mr Corbyn was comfortably re-elected on the eve of that year's Labour party conference.
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