Labour MPs are calling for a change in party rules to make it easier to expel members who espouse antisemitic views.
Amid concerns that the leadership is failing to act decisively in the wake of a series of cases of alleged antisemitism, the Labour MPs Wes Streeting and Anna Turley are calling for new rules to ban the use of antisemitic, Islamophobic or racist language.
Streeting, a former president of the National Union of Students and now Labour MP for Ilford North, told the BBC: “We’ve now got a problem where too many of our Jewish members and people out there in the country think the Labour party is apathetic to antisemitism and it isn’t a place for Jewish members.
“I think we’ve got to make sure that this party, with its historic commitment to tackling all forms of prejudice, including antisemitism, is still a place for Jewish people.”
Streeting is being supported by Turley, the Labour MP for Redcar.
Lord Levy, Tony Blair’s former fundraiser, has said he might quit the Labour party if it fails to do more to confront antisemitism. Recent examples have included Vicki Kirby, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who was readmitted to the party after being suspended for making offensive comments about Jews. She was then suspended again.
Jeremy Newmark, from the Jewish Labour Movement, endorsed the rule change on the grounds that the current rules do not match public pledges by the leadership to tackle antisemitism. Newmark told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “Everybody’s talking about zero tolerance of antisemitism but it’s become apparent because of a spate of incidents over the last couple of months that the rules and processes of the party don’t provide adequate provision to deal with it.”
A Labour spokeswoman told the BBC: “We welcome the contributions of Labour’s affiliates and members in this important debate. Rule changes can be submitted to Labour’s annual conference where they are democratically agreed by delegates.”
