A representative of Jewish Labour members has expressed dismay at the British party’s attitude towards accusations of anti-Semitism, telling backers of newly re-elected leader Jeremy Corbyn he feared a “crisis” in the relationship with the Jewish community. Both are political outsiders who have unsettled their parties and energized their large fan bases, but whose ability to win power remains unproven.
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Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn says he doesn’t plan to purge his ranks of critical lawmakers despite their failed campaign to oust him.
Corbyn won 61.8% of the votes of more than half a million party members and affiliated supporters.
Mr Corbyn has been meeting key Labour MPs – including Parliamentary Labour Party chairman John Cryer and popular backbencher Jess Phillips, who chairs the women’s PLP – as he seeks to rebuild his frontbench team in a reshuffle expected soon.
“It’s not a fair comment, and I would hope that he would reflect on that because clearly there are diverse views within the party on issues in the Middle East, but there is absolute unity in the party of opposing any form of anti-Semitism, any form of racism in the party”, the Labour leader said.
Speaking after the result was declared in Liverpool, Corbyn thanked his rival, Owen Smith, and urged the “Labour family” to unite after the summer-long contest.
He said Mr Corbyn “has to be able to show progress” with the public and in the polls, adding: “We can not measure our success by the size of the membership or indeed the size of the rallies that we are holding”.
Former shadow cabinet minister Michael Dugher hit out at the hard left “screaming at the delegates” on their way into the Labour conference.
He has strong grass-roots support, but many Labour legislators believe his left-wing views are out of step with public opinion, and have tried to unseat him.
The 67-year-old socialist spent more than 30 years as a backbench Labour lawmaker, never holding a senior role and best known for his frequent rebellions against the center-left party leadership.
“The vast majority of MPs will have no problem whatsoever”.
That could be as existing MPs “come to terms with this mass movement that they are now part of – many of them will embrace what’s happened” while “over time you will see the representation change as a result of that mass movement coming along”.
But the daunting task facing them became clear when it emerged there had been a further membership boost even in the hours since Mr Corbyn’s victory, with a further 15,500 people joining the party. Corbyn defeated challenger Owen Wilson, 313,209 votes to 193,229 votes.
What they’ll get is “the same Jeremy Corbyn who’s been through the last year, indeed the last 30 years in Parliament”, he said in a BBC interview on Wednesday.
Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales, said the UK’s decision to vote to leave the European Union showed that “people won’t stand for it when they feel disconnected from their politics and from their politicians”.
He told a conference fringe: “I think the Labour Party will survive but I don’t know whether the Labour Party will survive as a party which can realistically attempt to be in government”.
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Earlier, in a TV studio, Heidi Alexander, the former Shadow Health Secretary, said Mr Corbyn still had to prove he is “a competent and capable” leader of the opposition – after a “dysfunctional” first year in office.
