FORMER Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has taken out a advert in the Jewish Telegraph to apologise for his party’s anti-Semitism difficulties and to launch a scathing and personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard.
Murphy, who, as the MP for East Renfrewshire, represented Scotland’s largest Jewish community, wrote that he “could no longer remain passive while the current Labour leadership does so much damage to Labour’s relationship with British Jewry”.
READ MORE: Labour MSP told to publicly retract her ‘baseless’ NHS claim
Referring to Corbyn and John McDonnell as “British Labour’s top team” he accuses them of being “intellectually arrogant, emotionally inept and politically maladroit”.
Corbyn, he adds, “is not doing nearly enough to throw out the anti-Semites found within grassroots and online Labour".
Labour’s anti-Semitism row has been rumbling on since Corbyn became leader in 2015.
READ MORE: Jim Murphy earned £150k as political consultant in years following 2015 election
However, it has intensified in recent weeks after the decision by the party’s ruling NEC not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s full definition of anti-Semitism into its code of conduct. It misses out four of the IHRA’s examples of anti-Semitism, including comparisons between Israeli policy and the Nazis, and allegations of dual loyalty.
In his advert, Murphy says: “I have always been angered by the way in which British Jews are held to account for actions of a government of a foreign country, of which they’re not citizens and whose government they’ve played no role in choosing.”
He added: “The Jewish community and everyone else who is offended by Labour’s stance are being asked to accept quarter-baked platitudinous Labour apologises for the ‘upset that has been caused’.”
Murphy’s contribution will put pressure on Leonard. The Scottish Labour leader has been relatively quiet over the row.
Ben Proctor, chairman of the East Renfrewshire constituency Labour Party tweeted a link to Murphy’s advert to Leonard, writing: “Hi @LabourRichard, When can we expect you to say anything in the issue?”
The Scottish Labour leader refused to be drawn on the IHRA and the examples during a BBC Radio Scotland last week. He said: “I am willing to recommend we have further discussion and dialogue with the Jewish community, including the Jewish community in Scotland, which I intend to lead on, because we need to win the confidence of the Jewish community.
Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw tweeted a link to the Jewish Telegraph article, and said: “This is an unprecedented, powerful and thundering indictment of Corbyn and Leonard by Jim Murphy. Sadly East Renfrewshire Labour and their elected members are outliers in this maelstrom of anti-Semitism.”
Shadow Chancellor McDonnell recently told the BBC the row had shaken Labour to its core.
He said: “None of us failed to appreciate the way this has upset people, including ourselves. It’s shaken us to the core really. But we’ll resolve it. We’ve got to.
“We’ve got to resolve it in the Labour party certainly, but also the members of the Jewish community are really suffering out there.
“We’ve had a massive increase in attacks on the Jewish community – daubing of cemeteries, it’s appalling that Jewish schools have to have security guards as well.
“So we need to resolve it within our party and then get out there with the Jewish community and campaign against anti-Semitism within our society overall.”
Murphy led Scottish Labour to its biggest defeat in 2015, when the party lost 40 of its 41 seats to the SNP,including the East Renfrewshire constituency he had held since 1997.
He is currently listed as a “contributor” at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
The advert came as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews accused Corbyn of hiding from the crisis.
In a column for the Jewish News, Marie van der Zyl said Corbyn was refusing to “face the obvious difficult questions”.
“He is clearly just hoping it will go away,” she added.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel