Andrew Gwynne says people need to acknowledge antisemitism on left of UK politics

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Labour has “not done nearly enough quickly enough” in tackling antisemitism within the party, the shadow communities secretary has said.

Andrew Gwynne said Jeremy Corbyn’s party was determined to root out antisemitism as he dismissed suggestions the issue was being used by Labour MPs to attack the party leader.

“Let’s be clear. We have to make progress on this. We’ve not done nearly enough quickly enough, and that is recognised across the Labour party. It’s recognised by our new general secretary, Jennie Formby,” he told BBC 1’s Andrew Marr Show.

“We are determined not just to call out antisemitism, but to root out antisemitism. “It has no place in the Labour party.”

Following the trade union boss Len McCluskey’s claim that some Labour MPs were “polluting” the leader’s efforts to tackle the problem, Gwynne was asked whether antisemitism was being used to attack Corbyn.

“No,” he replied. “And Jeremy has made very clear that [he does not accept] the notion that these are smears against the Labour party.

“It is perfectly acceptable for Labour MPs to call out antisemitism in our party and in our movement and it is incumbent on our party and on our movement to act and root it out.”

He said people needed to “acknowledge that there is an issue of antisemitism on the left of British politics”.

“It’s not just something that affects the right of British politics – there is an element in the left. It is a small element.”

Gwynne also sought to lower expectations ahead of the local elections on Thursday. He said: “We’re predicting that because these were high watermark years when these seats were last fought in 2014, that it’s probably going to be difficult to get anything like that.

“We’ve never ever held the City of Westminster, we last held Wandsworth in 1978. If we took those it would be a spectacular night.

“I am confident that we will have a good night – I don’t think it will be anything like some of the opinion polls would suggest because we are already defending about 80% of the seats in some of those metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs – we’re already at a high watermark.”