Skeletons

Early this afternoon, I listened to, and later watched, an interview with the former Labour MP Luciana Berger on Radio Five Live’s Emma Barnett show. Berger, you may recall, was hounded out of the Labour Party on the grounds that she was Jewish. At the time, when she was eight months pregnant, she received death threats, people were imprisoned for threats against her and every single day she was on the end of vile abuse. Harrowing though the interview was to listen to, watching it was even harder. On the radio, you could hear and feel her pain with every word she spoke. Later on, I could see it. What she went through was unforgivable.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) report on antisemitism had been “a day of shame” for the party. He wasn’t kidding. The report uncovered:

• Political interference in anti-Semitism complaints
• Failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints
• Harassment, including the use of anti-Semitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of anti-Semitism were fake or smears
• There were 23 instances of “inappropriate involvement” by Jeremy Corbyn’s office, included staff influencing decisions on suspensions or whether to investigate a claim.

As ever, the former leader made it all about himself. “It’s political, they’re out to get me, I love Jews, me,” he said, or something like that. Yet the harassment and discrimination suffered by victims was unlawful. “Yeah, but it’s all been exaggerated,” continued the old boy, deciding to carry on digging, before going off to lay a wreath on the grave of some terrorist or other. I made up the last bit but it’s entirely believable for those of us who know and understand the true character, or lack of it, of Corbyn.

Labour has now suspended Corbyn pending further inquiries. Starmer had said there was no room in Labour for nasty little racist toads, particularly those toads who enabled Jew hatred, or just tolerated it. Corbyn sensed impending martyrdom.

Corbyn said cases of antisemitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. No. They really haven’t. There was no witch hunt against Corbyn, which I always felt was rather a shame given what a horrible little man he is. There has never been a terrorist Corbyn wouldn’t want to share a platform with. Hezbollah? “They’re my friends,” cried Jezza. “They are men of peace, just like me.” I have always believed he represented the worst of us. And, as Labour’s accidental leader, there were simply not enough closets for all his skeletons.

I want the likes of Corbyn out of Labour and the likes of Luciana Berger to come back to a Labour Party safe for her and our other Jewish friends. Corbyn isn’t the victim: the victims of the antisemitism he enabled, tolerated and, for all we know, believed in are the victims.

We need a united Labour Party and that can’t include the likes of Corbyn and his thuggish pals.