Despite the fact that 150 U.K. Labour Party members unanimously passed a motion demanding that the party to do more to confront anti-Semitism, the party’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, defended party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his controversial ties.
Formby said “is impossible to eradicate” anti-Semitism, and that it is “dishonest to claim to be able to do so” even though she acknowledged it is crucial to “eliminate the evil of anti-Semitism.”
According to The Jewish Chronicle, a party member responded, “We seem to have gone from zero tolerance to zero concern.”
The 11-point resolution called on Corbyn, who was absent from Monday’s meeting, and Labour leaders to answer questions on the current state of the party’s disciplinary process.
Labour member Ruth Smeeth, who is Jewish, told The Jewish Chronicle that Formby was “refusing to give us a written report” in accordance with the motion, and that her response was “platitudinous, dismissive and far from acceptable.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism blasted Labour leaders for their apparent inaction regarding Jew-hatred.
“When Labour MPs unanimously vote to condemn their own party’s handling of its anti-Semitism crisis, one would expect responsible, anti-racist leaders to take note, but Labour’s leadership is neither responsible nor anti-racist, seeing its own MPs who stand up to anti-Semitism as threats, not allies,” said the organization’s chariman, Gideon Falter. “Jennie Formby’s appalling rebuff to her own MPs shows once again that Labour’s leadership has no intention of tackling anti-Semitism. She is telling her MPs that anti-Semitism in the party is there to stay, showing that those who do not wish to remain part of an anti-Semitic institution have but one option: to leave.”
