I am not shocked in the slightest that the Labour Party is now embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal. The only thing which has surprised me is that it hadn’t happened sooner.

After all, the Labour Party has been captured by a bunch of hard Left middle class activists who have a visceral hatred of Israel.

These are the people who joined the Labour Party in their droves last summer, with the sole intent of voting for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership contest.

At the time, a number of Labour Party grandees voiced their concerns about the huge influx of activists, but they were swept aside as ‘Blairite’ stooges who were opposed to the party shifting Leftwards.

The Blairites lost and the hard Left won with the election of Corbyn, and now Labour is reaping what it has sown, because they elected a leader who has dallied with Islamist organisations for a number of years.

For example, he is a known supporter of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that terrorises Gaza.

Indeed, Corbyn once said that Hamas was ‘an organisation that is dedicated to the good of the Palestinian people and bringing about long term peace and social justice and political justice in the whole region’.

Interestingly, the Hamas Charter, drawn up in 1988, states that ‘our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious’ and goes on to call for an ‘Islamic State’ of Palestine. Note that the struggle is not with the state of Israel, but with the Jews. Some peace, Mr Corbyn.

Corbyn is also known as a ‘friend’ of the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, whose Deputy Leader Naim Qassem said: ‘The history of Jews has proven that, regardless of the Zionist proposal, they are a people who are evil in their ideas.’

Two years ago, Corbyn also signed a letter in support of CAGE, the Islamic ‘advocacy group’ run by former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg. Last year the group famously described Jihadi John as ‘a beautiful young man’.

In 2014, the Jewish group the Community Security Trust warned the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust – who at the time were funding CAGE – of a number of anti-Semitic articles on CAGE’s website, including one that claimed the September 11 attacks in New York were an insurance scam organised by a Zionist billionaire.

Corbyn is also a leading supporter of the Trotskyite group, the Stop the War Coalition. He was the Chairman of Stop the War until he became the Labour leader. Last year Corbyn ignored the advice of many of his fellow Labour MPs and kept his engagement as the keynote speaker at the Stop the War Christmas dinner.

In recent years, Stop the War has had to delete articles from its website, which range from claims that the Jews control the banks, the media, the United States and even FIFA.

Its insinuation that somehow the horrendous Paris terrorist attacks were somehow justified by the West’s intervention in the Middle East even led to the resignation of the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, from its ranks. But not Corbyn.

In 2012, the Labour leader co-sponsored the visit to Britain and to Parliament of an Israel-based anti-Semitic extremist, Sheikh Raed Saleh, who claimed that Jews use the blood of gentile children to make their bread.

Corbyn is also a ‘good friend’ of radical preacher Ibrahim Hewitt, who believes that apostates should be killed and adulterers stoned to death.

As well as being the chairman of the Hamas-linked Interpal, Hewitt is also the ‘Senior Editor’ of the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), which has made anti-Semitic claims including that the Jews control Westminster.

Examples of Corbyn’s links to anti-Semitic organisations or individuals go on and on, and on again.

A fish rots from the head down, and the Labour Party’s problems with anti-Semitism are a perfect example of it.

Paul Nuttall is MEP for the North West and Deputy Leader of UKIP.