Corbyn insists ‘scale’ of Labour antisemitism was ‘grossly exaggerated’

Jeremy Corbyn has once again claimed “the scale” of antisemitism in the Labour Party was “grossly exaggerated.”

Speaking during a heated exchange with Labour shadow minister Liz Kendall on ITV’s Peston show, the former leader suggested a controversial report into the issue backed his long-time stance on the level of anti-Jewish racism in the party.

Corbyn said:”The Forde Inquiry indicated everything I said about the scale, evil as antisemitism is … the scale of it within the party was grossly exaggerated.”

Earlier Kendall had said Corbyn “only has himself to blame” for being ousted as a Labour MP “because of his failure to apologise for what happened when he was leader over what happened on antisemitism.”

She added:”He only has himself to blame for saying the issue was exaggerated.”

Corbyn then claimed:”As you well know, I never said that antisemitism as an evil was exaggerated, I said the number of cases was exaggerated. You know perfectly well what I said.”

Corbyn said he had “accepted” the EHRC report into antisemitism when it was published, despite the fact that he sparked fury at the time by issuing a statement saying c added:”We are a party of anti-racists, you and I equally are.”

Asked what Corbyn needed to do to have the Labour whip returned, Kendall said the ex-leader needed to make a “full and frank” apology over his failure to comprehend the scale of the problem.

Kendall, shadow minister for social care,  then launched a staunch defence of the changes Keir Starmer had made to Labour, including on antisemitism.

The Leicester West MP added:”Keir Starmer has taken firm action on this issue. He has changed the party since Corbyn was leader. He has said we love our country, we are proud of our forces, we stand up for NATO.

“He has changed our party and said we will root out antisemitism. People who think the problem was exaggerated are actually part of the problem themselves.”

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