Corbyn Suffers ‘Worst Ever’ Meeting With Colleagues as he is Called Out on Brexit, Antisemitism

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has suffered his ‘worst ever’ meeting with his MPs, with members of the party calling Mr Corbyn out on a number of topics including Brexit, sexual harassment and the failure of Mr Corbyn to deal with Labour’s antisemitism crisis.

Meeting with his MPs on Tuesday for the first time since Labour’s disappointing European election results, Mr Corbyn was told of the concerns of members in no uncertain terms.

One of the issues singled out for criticism was Labour’s handling of their antisemitism crisis, an ongoing issue that has come to define Corbyn’s time as leader of the party. The Equality and Human Rights Commission have even taken the unprecedented step of launching an investigation into racism in the Labour Party, something which has deeply concerned a number of MPs.

Labour’s by-election campaign in Peterborough this month was drawn into the ongoing debate over antisemitic views within the party when it was revealed the candidate — who was ultimately elected — had ‘liked’ a Facebook post which said that Theresa May was pursuing a “Zionist slave masters agenda” and also commenting positively on a thread that blamed Mossad for creating Islamist extremists such as ISIS. The candidate subsequently denied knowing the content of the posts when she interacted with them.

Corbyn was also attacked by his members over Brexit. Labour have been suffering from a loss of support over their unclear message on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and it has caused rifts in the party with Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry reportedly being on the verge of being sacked for publicly calling for a second referendum.

Labour also performed poorly in the recent European election results, coming in a distant third place with just 14 percent of the vote while parties with strong messages about Brexit, such as the Liberal Democrats and the Brexit Party fared far better.

The final issue over which Mr Corbyn was taken to task was that of sexual harassment in the party. A series of leaked emails appeared to show that Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff had opted not to pursue a formal probe into allegations made by a female staffer against senior Labour activist Pete Willsman.

Willsman was already suspended by the Labour Party for saying that the Israeli embassy had “whipped up” the antisemitism crisis the party was facing.

One of Mr Corbyn’s MPs, Jess Phillips, even told him that members of the ‘Corbyn cult’ were being ‘protected’ when allegations of sexual assault were made.

Another MP, Marie Rimmer, told Mr Corbyn that people “who have worked with you for ages” were turning away and said that “he did not even seem to acknowledge that there were difficulties, from Brexit to sexual harassment, to antisemitism. “