‘I don’t buy this nice old grandpa’: Question Time audience member criticises Jeremy Corbyn over abuse of Jewish MPs as he says he is ‘terrified’ for his daughters’ future
- Question Time audience member Ryan Jacobs, 36, hits out at Jeremy Corbyn
- Mr Jacobs said he watched clip of Jewish MP leaving press conference in tears
- He also took Mr Corbyn to task over Jewish MP needing conference bodyguard
One audience member said he was ‘terrified’ for his daughters’ future after seeing the way Jeremy Corbyn treated his female Jewish MPs.
Ryan Jacobs said he had watched a video of Labour MP Ruth Smeeth running out of a press conference in tears after being heckled by activist Marc Wadsworth in 2016.
At the event, at which Mr Corbyn launched Baroness Chakrabarti’s much-derided report into the party’s anti-Semitism problem, the leader was later seen chatting to Mr Wadsworth.
Jeremy Corbyn is pictured above on stage at the Question Time special. The audience member said what he had seen on the Ruth Smeeth video meant he could not buy Mr Corbyn’s ‘nice old grandpa’ act
Ryan Jacobs, 36, from Hull, dismissed Mr Corbyn’s ‘nice old grandpa’ image
Mr Jacobs, 36, from Hull, also took the Labour leader to task over the fact that the then Labour MP Luciana Berger needed a bodyguard at the party’s conference last year.
He said what he had seen on the Ruth Smeeth video meant he could not buy Mr Corbyn’s ‘nice old grandpa’ act.
He told him: ‘I heard you talk about free speech and standing up for human rights. I have two young daughters and what terrifies me as I look at some female Labour MPs and the misogyny that’s happening in the Labour party, driven out of the party.
Ryan Jacobs said he had watched a video of Labour MP Ruth Smeeth running out of a press conference in tears after being heckled by activist Marc Wadsworth in 2016. At the event, at which Mr Corbyn launched Baroness Chakrabarti’s much-derided report into the party’s anti-Semitism problem, the leader was later seen chatting to Mr Wadsworth
And I look at a video on YouTube… Ruth Smeeth, a Jewish MP, was heckled out of that press conference and there you are at the end of the press conference chatting happily to that same heckler.
‘I don’t buy this whole “nice old grandpa”, I see that video and that tells me all I need to know.
‘I’m terrified for my daughters because I see what you did in that video. I think it’s disgraceful.’
Mr Corbyn replied: ‘Nobody should suffer any abuse in public life or privately, that’s clear.’
Mr Jacobs member shouted out: ‘Watch the video.’
Mr Corbyn replied: ‘Many women Labour MPs – Ruth Smeeth and others – have suffered the most unbelievable levels of abuse and it was a Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered because she stood up in public life. I simply say to you that misogyny and racism in any form is not acceptable in any form whatsoever in my party or in our society.’
Mr Wadsworth has since been thrown out of the Labour party. Miss Berger is now a Liberal Democrat candidate.
Mr Jacobs, 36, from Hull, also took the Labour leader to task over the fact that the then Labour MP Luciana Berger needed a bodyguard at the party’s conference last year