New Statesman says Corbyn ‘unfit for office’ due to antisemitism and Brexit

The New Statesman declined on Wednesday to back a party at next week’s general election, castigating Jeremy Corbyn for his handling of the row over antisemitism and his stance on Brexit.

The left-leaning weekly, which offered a qualified endorsement for Labour in 2017 and backed it in 2015, refused to support a party in a Leader column published online today.

Despite this, the magazine encourages readers to judge local candidates based on “his or her merits” and to vote tactically “to deprive Mr Johnson’s hard Brexit Conservatives of a majority,” praising Luciana Berger among a list of “fine parliamentarians.”

While hailing Labour’s “bold manifesto,” including its green new deal and proposal to roll out free broadband across the UK, the editorial claims Corbyn is “unfit to be Prime Minister” due to his “reluctance to apologise for the antisemitism in Labour and to take a stance on Brexit.”

It cites Chief Rabbi’s Ephraim Mirvis’ unprecedented criticism last week, as well as the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s formal investigation into the party and the Jewish Labour Movement’s refusal to endorse the party unless for extraordinary candidates.

The piece, which describes Boris Johnson’s politics as “one of oligarchy and demagogy,” claims both leaders are “profoundly unpopular” and compromised by “their past actions and associations.”

“On the eve of a new decade, there is an acute need for an alternative political and economic settlement that no party at present adequately represents. Moments of national renewal are never smooth or painless,” the piece reads.