Jeremy Corbyn is ‘not cut out’ to be Labour leader says party peer
Jeremy Corbyn is ‘not cut out’ to be Labour leader according to one of the party’s OWN lords as under-pressure left-winger is told to rein in some of his supporters over anti-Semitism crisis
- Lord Harris suggested Mr Corbyn could have ‘reined back’ close associates
- Peer said leader should have acted to control his ‘more idiotic supporters’
- Labour peers have offered to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism in party
Jeremy Corbyn is ‘not cut out’ to be Labour leader, one of the party’s senior peers said today in an astonishing blast over the anti-Semitisim crisis engulfing the party.
Lord Harris of Haringey, chairman of the Labour Peers Group, also suggested the party leader could have ‘reined back’ members of his inner circle who reportedly intervened in disciplinary cases.
He also claimed Mr Corbyn should have acted to control his ‘more idiotic supporters’ who were engaged in abuse and intimidation.
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Harris said: ‘The concern that I have – and I have known Jeremy Corbyn for 47 years – is that he is not cut out to be a party leader.
‘He is a brilliant campaigner and yet I suspect the details, the managerial responsibilities, the day-to-day management of the way in which the party operates are not necessarily his skills.’
Lord Harris said: ‘The concern that I have – and I have known Jeremy Corbyn for 47 years – is that he is not cut out to be a party leader’
He also claimed Mr Corbyn should have acted to control his ‘more idiotic supporters’ who were engaged in abuse and intimidation
Labour peers have offered to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism in the party, as they warned Mr Corbyn that without full openness it is ‘a cancer that will continue to grow’.
Top shadow minister Starmer urges Jeremy Corbyn to ‘throw open’ Labour’s files to human rights watchdog
Jeremy Corbyn must ‘throw open’ Labour’s files to the human rights watchdog investigating alleged anti-Semitism in the party, one of his frontbenchers said last night.
The Labour leader has been forced to appear before his furious backbenchers following the fallout from last week’s BBC Panorama programme, it emerged yesterday.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer announced at last night’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party that the Shadow Cabinet will hold a special meeting to discuss the crisis next week.
He said of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission investigation: ‘Throw open the books, throw open the files, and access to any member of staff. We cannot circle the wagons.’
During a heated meeting, Jewish Labour MP Louise Ellmann said the Panorama revelations were a ‘shame and a scourge’, and added that Mr Corbyn’s response was a ‘disgrace’.
Siobhan McDonagh, the MP for a former Labour staffer who is suing the party over anti-Semitism, said Labour was ‘supposed to be the party of the workers’, adding: ‘This makes me sick.’
Baroness Smith of Basildon, the shadow leader of the Lords, was among signatories to a letter to Mr Corbyn in which the Labour Peers Group offered to establish a small panel to review the substance of allegations made in last week’s Panorama programme.
Lord Harris added: ‘There’s no question that in any organisation the moral tone that it sets, the style that it operates in is set from the top – that’s what leadership is all about.
‘So obviously Jeremy Corbyn has got a huge responsibility in this.
‘He could have reined back some of his more idiotic supporters and stopped them doing some of the things they are doing – the intimidation of members, the extraordinary discriminatory remark; he could have reined back the people in his office who have been apparently interfering in cases of discipline within the party.’
The peer’s comments came after Tory leadership hopefuls Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt suggested Mr Corbyn may be anti-Semitic – a claim described as a ‘baseless political attack’ by Labour.
The Tory leadership candidates were both asked whether they thought the Labour leader is personally anti-Semitic in the wake of a damning report by BBC Panorama into the party’s handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.
Mr Johnson said: ‘I think by condoning anti-Semitism in the way he does, I am afraid he is effectively culpable of that vice.’
Asked the same question at the event hosted by The Sun and TalkRadio, Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt replied: ‘Unfortunately, he may be.’
A Labour spokesman said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism in all its forms and has campaigned against it throughout his life.
‘This baseless political attack comes from a politician whose Islamophobic comments were directly linked to hate crimes targeted at Muslim women, approved an article that claimed black people have lower IQs and tonight refused to apologise for describing gay men as ‘tank-topped bum boys’.’
Labour has been rocked by a Panorama programme which claimed that senior figures, including Jeremy Corbyn’s communications chief Seumas Milne and general secretary Jennie Formby, had interfered in anti-Semitism investigations.
Labour has denied the claims and written a complaint to the BBC.
The shadow cabinet is expected to meet on Monday July 22 to discuss anti-Semitism, a source told PA.
Mr Corbyn is due to address the a potentially explosive gathering of the Parliamentary Labour Party after the special meeting.
Meanwhile more than 200 politicians, ex-staff and supporters tore into Labour’s treatment of whistleblowers who took part in a bruising documentary.
The group, which includes peers, commentators and the daughter of former party leader Neil Kinnock, lashed out at how it responded to the Panorama exposé last Wednesday.
Labour has been plunged into a deepening civil war since it aired, sparking fury from Mr Corbyn’s team and supporters.
They have mostly turned their fire on his deputy Tom Watson and others seeking to institute a new independent process for dealing with complaints.
Labour has also threatened those former staff members who took part in the programme with legal action for breaching non-disclosure agreements (NDA).
It came after one of Mr Corbyn’s top team warned that the party should not be ‘going for’ staff who speak out over anti-Semitism as the party continues to fracture over the issue.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said the left-wing party should not pretend there is not a problem with anti-Jewish behaviour within its ranks and how it was tackled.
In their letter, the mass group said: ‘The revelations in the Panorama documentary deserve to be treated with the utmost seriousness.
‘But the party’s response has been to smear Jewish victims, and former staff, accusing them of acting in bad faith.
Source: Read Full Article