A Jewish member of Labour’s governing body and prominent backer of Jeremy Corbyn has said she is frustrated with how slowly allegations of antisemitism are being dealt with in the party.
However, Rhea Wolfson said she expected the process to speed up with the arrival of the new general secretary, Jennie Formby, who has been told by the party leader to make the issue her top priority.
“Action has been taken. I am frustrated by the pace of action, as I know a lot of people are – there is a heck of a lot more that needs to be done – but things have happened,” said Wolfson, who represents constituency Labour parties on the ruling national executive committee.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was clear that some people in the party were not clear about the dividing line between criticising Israel and straying into “antisemitic tropes”.
She said: “There is very clearly a real issue, a huge piece of work that needs to be done in the Labour party, around modern antisemitism and giving people the tools to recognise when legitimate criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism,” she said.
Wolfson, who has been an organiser of the leftwing grassroots group Momentum and was selected by Scottish Labour to be its parliamentary candidate for the Livingston seat, said she expected the process to enter a “new stage” as Formby takes the reins of the NEC on Tuesday.
Her comments came the morning after the veteran Labour MP Stephen Pound suggested allegations were being used by Corbyn’s opponents to attack his leadership.
“I think the Labour party without a doubt has a problem, but on the other hand there are some people who are riding that horse to attack Jeremy Corbyn anyway,” the shadow Northern Ireland minister told Radio 4’s Westminster Hour.
Pound, who represents Ealing North, said Labour should “deal with this our way”, rather than comply immediately with “people screaming from the outside saying, ‘Sling this person out, chuck that person out’”.
He said: “We will take care of this. We will clean up this mess because we are the Labour party, we are not an antisemitic party, we’re not a racist party. We’re a party for everyone.”
Michael Martin, the former Commons Speaker, became the latest senior figure to speak out against antisemitism in Labour on Sunday when he called for a special one-day conference to address the problem.
