Michael Gove launches attack on 'Hamas-hugging' Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism

Environment Secretary says the Labour leader should 'never be let anywhere near Downing Street' in conference speech

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has become the latest big-hitting Tory to bash Labour over its antisemitism crisis, telling the party conference that “Hamas-hugging Jeremy Corbyn” should “never be let anywhere near Downing Street”.

Gove, who has long been a champion of Jewish causes, said Labour under Corbyn had become “a toxic cocktail of unrepentant Marxism-Leninism and unacceptable antisemitism”.

He said: “They are giving all the errors of the 20th century another chance to wreck our society. We’ve seen how this story ends before: in misery and shame. When our Jewish friends and neighbours live in fear for their futures, let us stand with them against prejudice, against intimidation, against bigotry and against hate.”

Gove said the message of “unshakeable solidarity with the Jewish community” should come “loud and clear” from the Conservative conference, before calling Corbyn a “Moscow-loving, Hamas-hugging, high-taxing, moderate-bashing, job-destroying, national anthem-avoiding, NATO-hating, class war-provoking, one-man museum of economic folly”.

The verbose flurry had echoes of fellow Brexiteer Boris Johnson, who used his speech to the conference last year to call Corbyn a “NATO-bashing, Trident-scrapping would-be abolisher of the British Army… He says he admires Bolivarian revolutionary socialism, I say he’s Caracas.”