Former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has today taken out a full page advert in a Jewish newspaper apologising for Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-Semitism scandal.
Jim Murphy said he took the dramatic step of paying for the slot in the Jewish Telegraph because he could not stand silent as his party ‘turned its back’ on Jews.
The ex Cabinet minister launched a blistering attack on the Labour leader in the advert, accusing him of not doing ‘nearly enough’ to kick anti-Semites out of the party.
The astonishing attack comes as Jewish leaders furiously demanded that Mr Corbyn ‘come out of hiding’ from his holiday by the seaside and tackle the crisis.
In the advert, Mr Murphy branded Mr Corbyn and his allies ‘intellectually arrogant, and emotionally inept’ and said they have ‘deliberately turned their back on British Jewry’.
He added: ‘Today there’s a small, but growing minority of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists amongst the membership of the Labour Party.
‘Jeremy Corbyn is not doing nearly enough to throw out the anti-Semites found within grassroots and online Labour.’
Corbyn at the Lion Rock Tea Rooms in Somerset where he is where he is enjoying a staycation
Jim Murphy said he took the dramatic step of paying for the slot in the Jewish Telegraph because he could not stand silent as his party ‘turned its back’ on Jews.
The former Scottish Labour leader tweeted about the apology, in which he accused Jeremy Corbyn of turning his back on British Jews
He laid the lame for the crisis squarely at the feet of the Labour ledaer and his uporters.
Mr Murphy, who lost his seat in 2015, said: ‘No partry leader has the right to hatter the relationship betwen British labour and British Jewry.
‘The Jewish community and everyone else who is offended by Labour’s stance are being asked to accept quarter-baked platitudinous Labour apologies for the “upset that has been caused”.
‘Instead whats needed urgently is Labour action against the sickening anti-Jewish racism that is the actual cause of the offence in the first place.’
Meanwhile, the Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl warned the Labour leader ‘you cannot lead through invisibility’ and said that he must come back form holiday to get a grip on the crisis.
Writing in Jewish News, she said: ‘He is clearly just hoping it will go away. I’ve got some bad news for him – unless he does what he needs to do, it won’t.’
She added: ‘I call on Jeremy Corbyn to come out of hiding and do the right thing.’
But as the anti-Semitism scandal continues to tear his party apart Mr Corbyn has been enjoying his holiday in Burnham-on-Sea, where he was happily posing for photographs with locals.
Mr Corbyn has been trekking coastal routes, trying his hand at lawn games and taking to the beaches.
He posed with staff at the Lion Rock Tea Rooms where manager Tamsin said he was enjoying his stay.
Jeremy Corbyn’s holiday was taken in Somerset this year as the Labour leader took a break from the city
She told Somerset Live: ‘He came in around lunchtime, and he had our homemade sweet potato, coconut and lime soup.
‘He was more than happy to talk, and was very pleasant to all the staff here. He said he was going to do Jacob’s Ladder later on in the afternoon.’
What is the timeline of anti-Semitic scandals which have erupted under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership?
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) has been accused of failing to tackle the racism among his supporters
The anti-Semitism scandal has dogged the Labour party since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.
Here is a timeline of the controversies:
April 2016:
Labour MP Naz Shah is suspended for anti-Semitic posts – including one in which she appeared to endorse calls for Israelis to be deported to the US.
She apologised and was given a formal warning.
Ken Livingstone goes on the radio to defend Ms Shah – but sparks fresh controversy by claiming that Hitler supported Zionism.
He is suspended by Labour but refuses to apologise and has repeated the claim many times.
He eventually quits Labour two years later, saying his suspension have become a distraction.
June 2016:
A two-month inquiry by civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti finds that Labour is not overrun by anti-Semitism.
But the launch is overshadowed when Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth flees it in tears after being accused by Corbyn supporter Marc Wadsworth of colluding with the press.
Critics accuse the report of being a whitewash and Ms Chakrabarti is widely criticised for accepting a peerage from Jeremy Corbyn shortly afterwards.
October 2016:
The Home Affairs Select Committee says Labour is guilty of incompetence over its handling of anti-Semitism and of creating a safe space for people with ‘vile attitudes towards Jewish people’.
March 2018:
It is revealed that Jeremy Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural and said the offensive art should be removed.
He apologises saying he did not properly look at the picture before he made the post.
Jewish leaders take the unprecedented step of holding a demonstration outside Parliament protesting Mr Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism.
Several Labour MPs address the crowds.
April 2018:
Marc Wadsworth is expelled from Labour after being accused of anti-Semitism.
Meanwhile, Labour Jewish MPs tell of the anti-Semitic abuse they have suffered in a powerful parliamentary debate – and round on their leader for failing to tackle it.
July 2018:
The Labour leadership sparks fresh anger by failing to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism
And Peter Willsman, a strong ally of Jeremy Corbyn, is secretly taped ranting that ‘Jewish Trump fanatics’ invented the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour.
In an angry diatribe at a meeting of Labour’s ruling executive committee, he said he was ‘amazed’ there was evidence party members hated Jews.
He claimed ‘some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump – they are Trump fanatics and all the rest of it’ before shouting: ‘So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.’
August 2018:
Jeremy Corbyn issues a video insisting he is committed to tackling the racism – but it is panned by Jewish leaders.
Corbynistas mount a social media campaign to get deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to quit after he criticises the party’s handling of anti-Semitism.
The campaign attracts 50,000 posts and makes the hashtag ‘ResignWatson’ trend on Twitter.
Liane Persaud however said he was not great at lawn games.
She said: ‘We spotted Jez in Coleridge Cottage at about 2.30pm today (Tuesday, August 7).
‘He was looking casual in shorts. He played one of the garden games, I think it was quoits, but he couldn’t get the hoops on the posts.
‘He was with several people, possibly one was his wife.’
Mr Corbyn’s holiday comes as his party is in a bitter civil war over the anti-Semitism crisis.
The Labour leader has been accused of purposely ignoring the racism which festers among some of his supporters.
While Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge – who lost family members in the holocaust – says Mr Corbyn and his allies are using the row to try to purge the party of his moderate critics
It emerged yesterday that Mr Corbyn has been given a month to back down over the anti-Semitism row or face losing the backing of his powerful allies in Momentum – the grassroots organisation which helped install and keep Mr Corbyn in power.
The Labour leader has rebuffed demands by Jewish leaders and many of his own MPs to fully adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism – a move they insist is crucial if the party is to finally get on top of the scandal.
The party has adopted some of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, but crucially it has not included several of the examples they use to illustrate it – including that Israel’s existence as a state is a racist endeavor.
But he has now been told by Momentum he must formally sign up to the definition at a crunch party meeting in early September, the Politico website reports.
While the GMB trade union – one of the UK’s biggest trade unions and a major force in Labour – has also come put to publicly demand the same.
If he refuses they could pull support for him – triggering what could be the biggest crisis in his leadership since the failed coup against him in the summer of 2016.
Jon Lansman, head of Momentum – the grassroots activist group set up to elect keep Mr Corbyn in power – has been lobbying the Labour leader to accept the definition.
A senior Labour official told Politico: ‘That it has come to this is a total disaster. It could cost the Labour party the next election.’
The party’s ruling National Executive Committee will hod a crunch meeting on September 4, where the showdown will come to a final head.
Momentum and one of Mr Corbyn’s major trade union backers are insisting the party leadership signs up to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism there.
It comes a day before Labour MPs are meeting on September 5, when they are expected to back the definition.
Labour MPs have told how they have been met with a wave of anti-Semitic vitriol, death and rape threats after they dared to speak out about the racism.
And they have furiously torn into their leader for willfully ignoring the racism festering among some of his supporters.
But the latest row has reignited after the Labour leadership refused to fully accept the international anti-Semitism definition.
Mr Corbyn’s office sparked fresh anger after it launched formal investigations into two Labour MPs, Dame Margaret and Ian Austin – who both lost family in the Holocaust – after they rowed with party bosses about the failure to tackle the abuse.
The probe into Dame Margaret has been dropped but Mr Austin remains under formal investigation.
A senior figure close to Mr Corbyn said: ‘My view now is we are going to move, significantly, making the concession, with all of the examples. I’m confident that we will. It’s a matter of the choreography.’
The official said that they have realised that they have no chance of winning back the trust of the Jewish community unless they make the concession.
They said: ‘It’s about trust, not about textual examples. I think it [the definition] has got lots of flaws — the definition itself is poorly worded.
‘But for the Jewish community it clearly has become totemic. When there is a lack of trust, you have got to get over that.
‘Politically it’s necessary to do what it takes. In my view, this situation is allowing real anti-Semites to act with impunity. We can’t allow that to happen.’
Meanwhile, Jewish news reports that Mr Lansman has been lobbying the leadership directly.
A source said: ‘Like many other leading party members close to the leadership, he recognises the necessity of agreeing that definition in order to be able to begin to rebuild trust with the Jewish community, whatever concerns we may have about the application of some examples.’
International holocaust experts earlier this week accused the Labour party of undermining efforts to stamp out anti-Semitism by not accepting the definition.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance said the party’s high controversial decision to refuse to fully adopt is definition of anti-Semitism was hampering efforts.
At home: Jeremy Corbyn was seen leaving his London home last week. This week he is enjoying strolls and the seaside in Somerset