A senior Labour frontbencher has hit back at trade union boss Len McCluskey over his attack on “Corbyn-hater” Labour MPs whom he accused of trying to portray the party as a “morass” of anti-Semitism.
The Unite general secretary, a long-standing ally of the Labour leader, warned on Wednesday that the actions of Mr Corbyn’s backbench critics were leading to renewed demands for the return of mandatory re-selection of Labour MPs.
However, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said it was “obvious” the party has an issue with anti-Semitism and those who deny it are “part of the problem”.
READ MORE: McCluskey says ‘Corbyn-hater’ MPs face smear-bids de-selection
“I disagree with Len McCluskey. Jeremy Corbyn has made it clear, and it is obvious, that we have got a problem with anti-Semitism. We have got to deal with it robustly and effectively,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Part of that is the disciplinary procedure, which needs to be much quicker and much more effective, but there is also a cultural question.
“Part of that cultural question is to stop those denying that there is even a problem. That is part of the problem. So I am afraid I disagree with Len on this.”
Writing in the New Statesman magazine, Mr McCluskey accused MPs on Labour’s centrist wing of “working overtime trying to present the Labour Party as a morass of misogyny, anti-Semitism and bullying”.
While he insisted that he was fiercely opposed to anti-Semitism, he singled out five MPs – Chris Leslie, Neil Coyle, John Woodcock, Wes Streeting and Ian Austin – who he said are “polluting” the leader’s efforts to tackle the problem.
“I look with disgust at the behaviour of the Corbyn-hater MPs who join forces with the most reactionary elements of the media establishment and I understand why there is a growing demand for mandatory reselection,” he wrote.
READ MORE: McCluskey says ‘Corbyn-hater’ MPs face smear-bids de-selection
The latest row erupted after Mr Corbyn’s attempt to mend fences with the Jewish community backfired as leaders of the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) accused him of failing to back his words with action.
Following talks on Tuesday, Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush and JLC chair Jonathan Goldstein said “a deep cultural change” was needed within Labour to rebuild trust.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here