Former Labour minister Dame Margaret Hodge has accused the party’s leadership of having a “hatred of Jews” in a damning attack on Jeremy Corbyn.
She also called her hard left party leader “an anti-semitic racist.”
The Labour MP, who will feature at a Jewish Labour Movement conference in London on Sunday alongside ex-PM Gordon Brown, said people at the top of the party were took more time being fixated on internal power struggles than addressing major issues like Brexit.
She told the Sunday Times: “We should be concentrating on Europe, but they [the Labour leadership] don’t give a toss; all they can think about is their internal Labour Party and their hatred of Jews.
She added: “That’s what it felt like to me. It felt much more hatred of Jews than any justice for Palestine.”
Labour MPs are said to be poised to hold another vote of no confidence in Mr Corbyn’s leadership, according to the Sunday Times.
Protesters hold placards as they demonstrate in Parliament Square against anti-Semitism on March 26, 2018 in London, England. The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council have drawn up a letter accusing Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn of failing to address anti-Semitism in his party. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
In a sign of widening splits in the party, shadow chancellor John McDonnell admitted he is “worried” about the prospect of a schism in Labour ranks.
The comments come in the wake of veteran MP Frank Field resigning the whip Friday after accusing the leadership of presiding over a party which is becoming a “force for anti-Semitism” and a host of other actions that have dogged Mr. Corbyn’s leadership.
In the past month, Mr. Corbyn has been criticised for his presence at a wreath-laying ceremony in Tunisia in 2014, which was said to have honoured the perpetrators of the 1972 Munich terror attack.
Later, footage emerged from 2013 of Mr Corbyn saying a group of British Zionists had “no sense of English irony”.
Mr. McDonnell told the New Statesman: “Yes, I think there are people who are willing to leave the party.
“I think I’m saddened by that. I really am saddened and I’m disappointed.”
Referring to concerns over anti-Semitism, Brexit and MPs’ careers, Mr. McDonnell said: “If those are the issues that people want to split on, these are all issues which can be dealt with within the party.
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