Len McCluskey: Chief Rabbi ‘wrong’ to say Corbyn unfit to be PM
Union boss tells BBC Radio 4 he thought it was 'quite extraordinary that a religious leader should come out and say that'
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey has said the UK’s Chief Rabbi was “wrong” to say Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was not fit to be prime minister.
In a column in The Times on Tuesday, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis staged an unprecedented intervention, saying antisemitism in the Labour Party was a “poison – sanctioned from the top”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, Mr McCluskey said: “I think that was wrong and quite extraordinary that a religious leader should come out and say that.”
He added: “Labour has fought, Jeremy Corbyn has fought, I’ve fought all my life against antisemitism. Labour has now very robust procedures to deal with anybody. We don’t want a single antisemite in the Labour Party.”
He continued: “I’m sure that’s what he believes if he said it, I just absolutely, fundamentally disagree with him.”
The party has tried to steer its campaign away from allegations of antisemitism and towards the NHS and climate change.
Corbyn faced pressure to apologise to the Jewish community after failing to when pressed during a 30-minute grilling on the BBC by veteran journalist Andrew Neil on Tuesday evening.
In the Jewish News this week, Labour’s General Secretary Jennie Formby wrote a column saying she respected Chief Rabbi Mirvis, but detailed the steps her party has taken to combat the issue of antisemitism – and why she thought he was wrong.
In September 2017, McCluskey was criticised by members of the community for claiming that accusations of antisemitism were “mood music” to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Len McCluskey tells us he doesn’t recognise Labour has a problem with anti-Semitism, saying it was “mood music” created to undermine Corbyn pic.twitter.com/frZv5ZnrZ3
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 26, 2017
During an interview with Jewish News in December 2017, he was asked if he stood by the phrase, he said: “I recognise that the terminology ‘mood music’ can be taken the wrong way.
“I was accused of trying to trivialise the issue of antisemitism. I would never do that. I would genuinely never do that.
“The point I was making is that there were people – maybe within the Jewish community, maybe, but certainly not exclusively – who were looking to undermine Corbyn.
“It wasn’t just the issue of antisemitism. Remember there was a huge furore kicked up, supported by the British media, about misogyny… The strategy was to try to say the Labour Party is toxic, the nasty party, and it’s only happened under Corbyn because he’s a weak leader and the party is basically breaking up.”
The Labour leader said he does not tolerate antisemitism “in any form whatsoever” and called it “vile and wrong” – but he declined four times to apologise to the Jewish community during the interview with Neil.
Speaking to LBC, shadow international development secretary Barry Gardiner said Mr Corbyn has previously apologised to the Jewish community and has not been “allowed to move on”.
He said: “When somebody apologises, as he did in a video message, actually saying that he apologised for it, for the deep hurt that had been caused to members of the Jewish community. He apologised that we had not as a party acted swiftly enough.
“And he pledged to do more to make sure that we got our processes more swiftly and more decisively done.”
He added: “But having made that apology, it doesn’t seem to have allowed it to move on. So whether he had apologised with Andrew Neil or not, I’m not sure whether it would have made a difference to the amount.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
