Jeremy Corbyn is the problem in anti-Semitism crisis, says Margaret Hodge
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Jeremy Corbyn is the problem in anti-Semitism crisis, says Margaret Hodge

Former minister says the mural controversy was the moment she changed her mind about Corbyn but vows to stay in party

Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist

Dame Margaret Hodge MP
Dame Margaret Hodge MP

The veteran Labour politician, Dame Margaret Hodge, has said she was “wrong” about her previous opinions of Ken Livingstone and Jeremy Corbyn, before her denunciation of the Labour leader as an antisemitic racist in July this year.

Speaking to Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland in the Jewish Labour Movement’s one-day conference at JW3, Dame Margaret said that she had previously encountered Ken Livingstone when she was the Labour leader of Islington Council and he was at the Greater London Council.

“He would call me by my maiden name, Oppenheimer, and draw links with the rich South African Oppenheimers”, she said. There was no relationship and Oppenheimer was a common name in Vienna, where her father came from, but she admitted she “didn’t appreciate” what Livingstone was doing by defining her in this way.

Asked to spell out exactly what she had said to Jeremy Corbyn, Dame Margaret insisted that she had not sworn at the Labour leader when she verbally attacked him. What angered her, she said, was that “in the middle of one of the most crucial votes on Europe, Labour was concerning itself with whether or not to adopt the IHRA [resolution on antisemitism]”.

There had been a parliamentary meeting on the night before the vote, she said, which Labour were losing, but “Jeremy Corbyn didn’t bother to come to the meeting”. Instead he was having dinner in the Commons.

After she had spoken to him, she said, “he wouldn’t engage. All he said was, ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’, and walked off.” She cited the “antisemitic rant” made at an NEC meeting by Pete Willsman and said that for Jeremy Corbyn to have sat there and listened to it without intervening was “unconscionable”.

Dame Margaret had previously defended Jeremy Corbyn against charges of antisemitism but said she had changed her view of him after the row about the controversial mural showing stereotypical “Jewish bankers”. Nobody, she said, could look at such a mural and not conclude that they were looking at antisemitism, but Corbyn had initially accepted it.

Asked by Jonathan Freedland whether, if Labour passed the IHRA definition in full, with no caveats, that the antisemitism issue would be over, Dame Margaret said: “I think the moment has passed. The problem is that Jeremy Corbyn is the problem.”

Nevertheless, despite rumours to the contrary, Dame Margaret made it clear that she was prepared to stay and fight. “It’s my Labour Party,” she said, “and the party is bigger than Corbyn”.

She conceded that she had not had a great deal to say or do about her Jewish identity in earlier years, despite being a typical Labour story — an immigrant, from Cairo, who fought for equality and social justice.

But she said her two sisters had been going through family papers and had found distressing letters and diaries of relatives who had been killed in the Holocaust. Her father had famously warned her to keep a packed suitcase in the hall in case once again, she needed to be a Jew on the move. But she admitted to the Jewish News that she had not taken his advice literally — “I do have a packed case in my head”.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: