British actor Hugh Grant attacked Labour’s inactivity in combating anti-Semitism within the party on Sunday while on the campaign trail with a Jewish MP who left the party over its controversial policies.
Grant spoke to The Jewish Chronicle while visiting the homes of dozens of residents in a heavily Jewish part of London to help boost the prospects of Liberal Democrat candidate Luciana Berger, who represents Finchley and Golders Green, and who quit the Labour Party back in February.
The actor said of accusations within Labour, “If you ask do I think there is an anti-Semitic element within the Labour Party, the answer is ‘yes.’ If you ask me do I think the present Labour leadership has done anything like near enough to root it out, my answer is ‘no.’ ”
Grant, 59, and Berger, 38, knocked on door after door to speak to constitutents—much like he did in the 2003 English romance film “Love Actually.” The actor noted that he was impressed with Berger, who challenged Jew-hatred before leaving Jeremy Corbyn’s party and deeming it “institutionally anti-Semitic.”
“I knew she was a rare thing—a politician of principle,” he said.
“To give up the majority she had and come and fight a marginal takes a lot of guts,” he continued. “And also to face the flack of the Labour Party—these people should be cherished. They are rare in the political world.”
