Former Labour MP admits party’s record on anti-Semitism helped fuel rise in hate crime

The government’s advisor on anti-Semitism says that the record rise in hate crimes against the Jewish community is down to the Labour party’s mainstreaming of racism against Jewish people.

John Mann, who was a former Labour MP, made his comments after the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity set up to protect British Jews, recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in a year so far.

The CST said it received 1,805 reports of incidents in 2019, a 7 per cent rise on the number reported in 2018 (1,690).

The trust has recorded anti-Semitic incidents since 1984.

Baron Mann said: ‘Not enough people are challenging anti-Semitism. We need to be more robust in standing up to it’.

He added: ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of action as Labour leader led to a growth of anti-Semitism on the left and there’s also virulent anti-Semitism on the right.’

The former MP called on politicians to tackle the climate in which people ‘feel confident’ to make anti-Semitic remarks and said anti-Semitism was a constant issue on the doorstep during the election campaign.

He added that it was becoming the most acceptable form of racism and that wider society had a responsibility to tackle it.

The CST reported that the rise in anti-Semitic incidents online is the ‘most obvious single factor’ which has caused a spike in incidents.

Some 39 per cent of incidents occurred online, with most taking place on social media, according to the findings.

A report said the number of online incidents ‘are only indicative and are likely to understate the scale of the problem’.

The highest monthly totals were in February (182) and December (184) – during times which saw ‘prominent and intense debate over allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party’, the charity claimed.

Some 224 of the incidents reported to the charity last year involved an offender or the nature of the abuse being ‘related to the Labour Party’ or the ‘anti-Semitism was expressed in the context of arguments about alleged anti-Semitism in the Labour Party’, according to the charity.

The CST’s chief executive David Delew said: ‘It is clear that both social media and mainstream politics are places where anti-Semitism and racism need to be driven out, if things are to improve in the future.’

Rabbi Abraham Pinter, who runs a synagogue in Hackney, told Metro.co.uk that the latest figures were a cause of worry and concern to the UK’s Jewish community but he drew ‘some consolation’ knowing that Britain is more tolerant than other countries in Europe, despite the record increase in hate crimes.

He added: ‘Anti-Semitism has become more acceptable, the Labour party has helped mainstream it, I’ve had people tell me “I might be anti-Jewish but I’m not racist”.

‘Much more needs to be done in schools and by politicians to tackle anti-Semitism.’

Rabbi Pinter who comes from the Haredi community also added that some Jewish children were worried about going into areas they were not familiar with, given the rise in anti-Semitism.

The Rabbi said that there needed to be a ‘longer term focus’ on racism in order to tackle the problem and called on the government to ensure a lot more is done to tackle anti-Semitism online.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: ‘It is deeply distressing that antisemitism is rising in our society and other countries.

‘We thank the Community Security Trust for the vital work it does highlighting and confronting antisemitism and in providing support and security for Jewish communities.

‘Antisemitism has no place in the Labour Party and we are taking more decisive action than ever before, and more than any other political party, to root out this bigotry and racism.’