Gordon Brown calls for tougher laws to root out antisemitism on the left

Labour’s Gordon Brown has called for tougher laws on antisemitism, warning that “intolerance has become a feature of our country.”

The Jewish Labour Movement affiliate member proposed to root out Jew-hate and Islamophobia through education in schools and new legislation.

“We have to fight the intolerance that is now a feature of our country and a feature of the rhetoric, particularly of the right but not exclusively the right,” the ex-PM said.

“I believe the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s proposal […] is what we should be pushing to root out yes Islamophobia on the right but also antisemitism on the left,” he said in an apparent reference to a 2016 report by the watchdog.

The report by the EHRC called for a comprehensive new strategy to eradicate “widespread racial inequality” amid rising tensions in Britain.

Brown spoke for about 45 minutes without notes at an event in London organised by the anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate and the Fabian Society.

He warned the UK risked unraveling amid the “narrow nationalism” of the Conservative and SNP, urging the “patriotic majority” to defend their values at risk of being “hijacked by a narrow dogmatic nationalism.”