The Labour party descended into open conflict as it launched disciplinary action against Margaret Hodge after an angry public confrontation in which the veteran MP branded Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite.

The MP for Barking, a secular Jew, defended her decision to confront the Labour leader in the Commons to share her “anger and outrage” over the party’s refusal to ditch a controversial new code of conduct on antisemitism.

At the same time it emerged that Corbyn’s allies had privately discussed in the run-up to last year’s general election how to “deal with” John Woodcock and other critics, including Peter Mandelson.

I was right to confront Jeremy Corbyn over Labour’s antisemitism | Margaret Hodge Read more

Woodcock, the MP for Barrow and Furness, resigned from the Labour party on Wednesday with a furious parting blast at the leadership, claiming an ongoing disciplinary process was rigged against him.

Theresa May raised Labour’s antisemitism woes at prime minister’s questions, telling MPs: “While I was negotiating our future security relationship with Europe [at the Nato summit], he was renegotiating the definition of antisemitism.”

Angry Labour MPs, led by Luciana Berger, chair of Jewish Labour, will table a motion on the party’s antisemitism problem at next week’s meeting of the parliamentary party.



In an article for the Guardian, Hodge claimed that under Corbyn’s leadership Labour was now seen as antisemitic by Jews and the British public. “He is now perceived by many as an antisemite,” she said.

“I chose to confront Jeremy directly and personally to express my anger and outrage. I stand by my action as well as my words.



“My grandmother and my uncle were murdered by Hitler and many cousins were slaughtered in the gas chambers ... I joined the Labour party to fight racism. To find myself 50 years later, in 2018, confronting antisemitism in my own party is completely and utterly awful.”

The Labour leader’s spokesman pledged that “action will be taken” against Hodge for her tirade over the decision by the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) to approve the code despite criticism from Jewish leaders.

The senior official said that Hodge’s comments were “unacceptable” and Labour rules forbid MPs from behaviour that is disrespectful or could bring the party into disrepute.



He confirmed that Corbyn himself would not make a complaint. He did not expand on what action would be taken against Hodge but sanctions have in the past ranged from verbal warnings to suspension.

“Under the terms of PLP [parliamentary Labour party] rules, behaviour has to be respectful between colleagues and not bring the party into disrepute,” he said. “The behaviour was clearly unacceptable between colleagues. Jeremy’s door is always open to discussions with members of the PLP. Action will be taken.”



Hodge had approached Corbyn behind the speaker’s chair in the Commons on Tuesday night as MPs took part in a series of knife-edge votes on Brexit. Friends denied reports she swore at the Labour leader but acknowledged she had called him “an antisemitic racist”.

In her article, Hodge accused Labour of dealing with complaints about antisemitism from members in a “desultory” manner. She claimed that a large demonstration in March had “effectively been ignored” by the leadership.

The “arrogance” displayed by Corbyn’s team by its refusal to adopt in full the internationally accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism “takes one’s breath away”, she said.

Labour figures reacted furiously to the threat of disciplinary action. Ian Austin, the MP for Dudley, said: “Imagine if Jeremy and his team were as quick to take action against the people responsible for racism as they are with the people complaining about it.”

David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary, also criticised the move. “It is the Labour leadership which has brought the party into disrepute – not Margaret Hodge,” he said. “How dare they preach about respect between colleagues when this very code legitimises the most appalling disrespect.”

However, one senior Labour MP who witnessed the altercation described Hodge’s behaviour as “shocking, bullying, intimidating and grossly offensive” and added: “It is beyond belief. I can’t understand that anybody would think that man [Corbyn] would have an antisemitic bone in his body.”

Corbyn briefly attended a rancorous three-hour session of the NEC on Tuesday to support its decision to leave the code of conduct in place but throw it open to fresh consultation. It has been widely criticised because it fails to incorporate all the examples listed alongside the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Woodcock: the MP claims senior Labour figures are out to get him as a result of his trenchant opposition to Corbyn. Photograph: Chris McAndrew

The leader’s office was also facing claims from Woodcock, who quit while he was suspended from the party amid harassment allegations, that senior Labour figures were out to get him as a result of his trenchant opposition to Corbyn.

In an email sent after an NEC meeting in May last year, a senior Labour figure told colleagues: “We need to deal with Woodcock, and for that matter Peter Mandelson and the others, but it needs to go through a legally sound process.”



At that time no formal complaint had yet been made against Woodcock, while Mandelson was viewed as a political problem for the party leadership but has faced no claims of impropriety.

Woodcock was suspended in April over accusations, which he vehemently denies, that he sent inappropriate texts and messages to a former staff member between 2014 -16. There is no suggestion the staff member’s complaint was motivated by the NEC email.

The email refers to the suspension and subsequent removal of another individual associated with the party because of “a long and colourful list of charges including sexting young women”, and continues: “If John Woodcock had similarly been suspended … then yes we could have refused to endorse him.”

Woodcock, who will now sit as an independent, claims the email is evidence that senior Labour figures were intent on forcing him out – along with other outspoken critics of Corbyn – long before the disciplinary process was launched.

A Labour spokesman said: “I’m not aware of anything like that. He’s not the only Labour MP who has often spoken against the party leadership. This is a bit of a red herring and a smokescreen in regard to a serious case that should have been fully investigated.”