Former PM Gordon Brown calls for new anti-Semitism inquiry in Labour
Prime minister from 2007-2010 says the problem of Jew-hatred in the Labour Party cannot be allowed to 'fester' and must be dealt with
Gordon Brown has suggested there should be a new inquiry into anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, or the problem may be allowed “to fester”.
The former UK Prime Minister from 2007-2009, urged his party to have a new probe into the problem which has dogged Labour since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader.
Speaking on London’s Southbank Centre on Tuesday night, he said: “There’s going to have to be a new inquiry and we are going to have to get all the facts and we are going to have to deal with those people that are causing the problem.
“I think that Jeremy Corbyn understands this, I hope that he does but it’s important. You cannot allow a problem like this to continue to fester”
In his address at he added that the issue of anti-Semitism is “something that we thought had been dealt with, it was something in the past. It is not”. He stresses his party has a “duty” to deal with it.
“We have got to take further action as the Labour party and it’s got to be done now and it has got to be done with determination.”
Labour’s relations with the Jewish community have been strained in recent years due to persistent allegations of anti-Semitism levelled at the Party.
In March, Jewish community leaders organised a rally protesting the issue of Labour anti-Semitism, demonstrating against inaction by Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament.
Following the demonstration, the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council met with Corbyn to outline their concerns, but labelled his response a “disappointing missed opportunity”. While the two mainstream Jewish organisations applauded Corbyn’s involvement in the two-hour talks, they said he had failed to agree to any of the concrete actions which they had previously asked for in their March 28 letter to him, following the rally.
The delegation expressed their frustration at the outcome of the meeting in which everything they put forward was met with “a hiding behind process”.
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