Dozens of Labour MPs have marched in support of their Jewish colleague Ruth Smeeth as she prepared to give evidence at a disciplinary hearing of a suspended party member accused of antisemitism almost two years ago.
The MPs were met by a small group of placard-carrying protesters, who were chanting “reinstate Marc Wandsworth” outside the Church House in central London.
The Labour activist was suspended from the party in June 2016 after he challenged the Labour MP Ruth Smeeth at a press conference launching the Chakrabarti report on antisemitism within the party.
The disciplinary hearing of Mr Wandsworth will decide whether he should be expelled from the party. Labour sources said no final decision is imminent with the disciplinary panel using Wednesday to hear evidence from both sides.
On a march from Westminster Hall, Ms Smeeth was accompanied by dozens of her parliamentary colleagues, with one of them, Jess Phillips, saying: “[We are] making sure she isn’t walking into a protest on her own.”
Ahead of the hearing, Mr Wadsworth told reporters: “I'm confident, as I'm not guilty. Based on the facts, this hearing, if it's fair, I will be exonerated.
”I'm totally and utterly opposed to antisemitism, to all forms of bigotry, including anti-black racism and Islamophobia.”
The hearing comes after Jewish community leaders hit out at Jeremy Corbyn following a crunch meeting to discuss antisemitism in Labour’s ranks, describing the talks as “disappointing and a missed opportunity.”
The meeting on Tuesday was an attempt to defuse the row over antisemitism in Labour, which the Labour leader used an editorial in the London Evening Standard to outline his “absolute determination” to stamp out.
However Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who met with Mr Corbyn alongside the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, rejected suggestions the meeting had been constructive.
He told BBC’s Newsnight: “Positive yes, but if you measure constructiveness by the actions to go with the words then I don't think that's what I would call it.”
Mr Arkush said the meeting was “friendly” in tone and Mr Corbyn was “extremely engaging (and) he looked interested”.
“But there were no actions to go with the words, yet again, and that's why we thought the meeting has been a real missed opportunity and a great disappointment,” he added.
In a joint statement following the two-hour meeting, the two Jewish community groups said: “Our meeting with Jeremy Corbyn today was a disappointing missed opportunity regarding the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
“We welcomed Mr Corbyn's personal involvement in the discussion and his new comments recognising and apologising for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party but he failed to agree to any of the concrete actions we asked for in our letter to him of March 28.”
They said the proposals put forward last month represented the “minimum level of action” the Jewish community expected from the Labour leadership following “two years of inactivity”.
“Words in letters and and newspaper articles will never be enough”, the groups added, as they called on Mr Corbyn to turn his words into “strong actions in order to bring about deep cultural change”.
