CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman, Rt. Hon. Sir Eric Pickles MP, today said that the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his frontbench are “still in denial” about the party’s problem with anti-Semitism.
Sir Eric’s comments were made in reaction to remarks by by Labour’s Shadow Attorney-General Baroness Shami Chakrabarti while at Oxford Union this week that Labour is not much worse than other parties regarding anti-Semitism.
Sir Eric said: “It is absolutely disgraceful and frankly extremely worrying that Jeremy Corbyn and his frontbench are still in denial about the Labour Party’s problem with anti-Semitism”.
He added: “Allegations of anti-Semitic incidents made against Labour Party members and MPs, together with the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report earlier this year, have made absolutely clear that there is a very real issue to be dealt with”.
Sir Eric underlined: “The Leader of the Labour Party and his team has a duty to pull their heads out of the sand, face up to this reality and take action to stamp it out once and for all.”
Addressing the chamber, Baroness Chakrabarti, who led an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party earlier this year which was described by numerous Jewish communal leaders as a “whitewash”, said: “By the way, I don’t believe Labour is much worse than any other party, but I’m not getting into the competition”.
