Momentum founder and Corbyn ally Jon Lansman: Labour has 'major problem' with anti-Semitism

Jon Lansman today spoke of the 'poison' of anti-Semitism within Labour
BRUCE ADAMS/DAILY MAIL
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Labour has a bigger problem of members with “hardcore anti-Semitic” views than previously acknowledged, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s oldest allies admitted today.

Jon Lansman, the founder of Left-wing group Momentum who sits on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, said the party had a “major problem” with anti-Semitism with the “poison” spreading on social media.

He also told of his feeling of “enormous regret, sadness and some shame” over Labour members such as Luciana Berger MP leaving the party.

Mr Lansman, who is himself Jewish, spoke out amid reports that more MPs are poised to quit Labour over the failure to tackle anti-Semitism within its ranks and Mr Corbyn’s refusal to back a second referendum on Brexit.

“It’s now obvious that we have a much larger number of people with hardcore anti-Semitic opinions which unfortunately is polluting the atmosphere in a lot of constituency parties and in particular online,” Mr Lansman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mr Corbyn’s allies had previously rejected accusations that he had failed to deal with anti-Semitism 
AFP/Getty Images

Mr Corbyn’s allies had previously rejected accusations that he had failed to deal with a significant problem of anti-Semitism, arguing that the claims were exaggerated to undermine his leaderhip.

However, in a significant intervention from the Left of the Labour movement, Mr Lansman stressed: “We have a major problem and it always seems to me that we underestimate the scale of it.

“It’s a widespread problem.”

He denied Labour was institutionally anti-Semitic, as claimed by Liverpool Wavertree MP Ms Berger when she quit the party last week, but said he was “extremely upset” by her departure.

“Any Jewish member of the party leaving the party because of anti-Semitism is a source of enormous regret, sadness and some shame,” he explained.

Mr Lansman, who has known Mr Corbyn for decades, called for more “pro-active” efforts to root out anti-Semitism and ensure the party is a “safe space” for Jewish people.

It had trebled in size, with more than 300,000 new members including some “attracted towards conspiracy theories”.

He added: “Unfortunately, online, Facebook groups can become an arena in which a minority with hardcore, anti-Semitic views can infect...

“The Tory Party is a smaller party and an elderly party and the role of social media in fomenting and spreading some of the poison is therefore more of a problem in the Labour Party.”

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson announced yesterday that he was sending a dossier of 50 complaints of anti-Semitism to Mr Corbyn and calling on him to take a “personal lead” in examining them and recommending action.

Mr Lansman rejected the idea that the Labour leader should take personal charge of dealing with complaints but admitted that tackling anti-Semitism had “taken very much longer than we’d hoped”.

Progress was being made with cases, he added, with the NEC having cleared a backlog, with smaller disciplinary panels set up to speed up the process.

Mr Lansman said he believes the Labour leader is committed to eradicating anti-Semitism.

Former Justice Secretary Lord Falconer of Thoroton, an ex-flatmate of Tony Blair, is in talks with Labour chiefs about becoming the party’s anti-Semitism surveillance commissioner, to oversee how it handles complaints.

Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth today vowed to stay and fight against anti-Semitism from within Labour rather than quit the party.

The MP for Stoke-on-Trent North told LBC Radio: “If the party won’t fix this [anti-Semitism] then they are going to hear from me every single day until this is resolved.”

She said her close friend Ms Berger had been hounded out of the party for “being a Jewish woman” and the abuse they are all suffering is “miserable”.

On Mr Watson’s intervention that he would give a platform for those who have differing views to Mr Corbyn, Ms Smeeth said: “I’m delighted Tom Watson is showing leadership and we aren’t seeing it from Jeremy Corbyn on this issue.

“I still don’t think he’s asked himself why people have resigned and acknowledged that this is a genuine issue.

“It’s not just Luciana, we’ve lost a lot of Jewish members in the past fortnight… people at high levels of the party for a long time and I doubt they will be the last ones to go.”

To avoid abuse sent to her over social media, she said a friend has changed her password so she cannot see anything said about her on Twitter - and her staff hide criticism from her.

The 39-year-old said: “Nationally I have party members saying vile things about me who have never met me and more so if they have those values they have no right to be in my party at all and they can leave.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in