What the 'MuralGate' anti-Semitism row tells us about Jeremy Corbyn

What the 'MuralGate' anti-Semitism row tells us about Jeremy Corbyn

Labour figures fear the MuralGate row could cost them in the polls

Ernie Bevin, the great British Labour Foreign Secretary after the war, was in office when Israel was created as a state.

Many thought that he was an anti-Semite. On the floor of the House of Commons, Winston Churchill remarked: "I do not feel any great confidence that he has not got a prejudice against the Jewish."

To which Prime Minister Clement Attlee replied: "That is entirely and utterly untrue. My right honourable friend has many good friends among the Jews."

Short of repeating this trope, there are many on the Labour benches who feel that Mr Corbyn couldn't have handled the latest accusations of anti-Semitism in the party, "MuralGate", much worse.

There is incredulity that the Labour leader's office could have handled the initial apology on Friday so badly; in the view of many it was considerably less than full-throated.


A senior Labour figure told me: "They screwed up with the insulting first response - then compounded that with the frankly not brilliant second response. Had the third response been put out first the reaction would have been very different."

Louise Ellman MP, Vice Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement agreed, telling me today: "His statement has been too slow in coming.

"He must now act decisively to root out anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. He must denounce those who claim that allegations of anti-Semitism are smears against the leadership."

Tonight, Mr Corbyn has issued a fourth statement, the most full-throated yet, where for the first time he has acknowledged the particular problem the left and Labour have had with anti-Semitism in recent years.

We will wait to see what the response from Jewish organisations will be.

I have written to the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council. I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of antisemitism. In this fight, I am an ally and always will be. pic.twitter.com/QhQnFEpplU — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 26, 2018

But that delay and initial prickliness, alongside similar examples in the past gives us an insight into Mr Corbyn's mind-set on this matter.

When challenged about perceived anti-Semitism, he has usually responded with total (and often furious) indignation.

As he told Martha Kearney last year: "The idea that I am some kind of racist or anti-Semitic person is beyond appalling, disgusting and deeply offensive. I have spent my life opposing racism."

I think that exchange reveals much.

Mr Corbyn cannot conceive himself as being culpable of action or thought which could be construed as racist or offensive to a minority.

He has a long and distinguished history of fighting racism and intolerance.

But for many that isn't good enough; You can't be absolved of prejudice by caché.

Even the most enlightened of us are only human - and capable of making human mistakes, as any disinterested party must observe.

Mr Corbyn did by saying what he did about the East London mural.

Moreover, as I suspect Mr Corbyn would be the first to say, to some extent racism or prejudice is in the eye of the beholder; it matters what the community sinned against thinks, how they feel about something, especially when it comes to a man who might be prime minister.

Image: Jeremy Corbyn has faced questions over his apparent support for an anti-Semitic mural

And they are voting with their feet and taking to the airwaves and indeed, Parliament Square, in protest.

As a senior Jewish Labour source told me: "Had he done a Naz Shah from the start and said, you know what I got it totally wrong and I see what I did was hurtful, that would have been the end of it."

When I asked that person if they thought that Mr Corbyn was actually an anti-Semite- they pause and then answered: "No…I'm willing to believe that it was a sin of omission.

"I assume he think thinks he understands because he's got a good record on minorities.

"But he doesn't understand and doesn't seem to wish to. It's a blind spot.

"I think it's because anti-Semitism is a form of racism outside his usual cultural understanding - it doesn't fit the anti-colonial, neo-imperial stuff which others do.

"But if he's as passionate about racism as he says he is he should try better."

In terms of the impact of this incident on wider politics, we can say two things: the first is that the fragile truce which reigned after the election between the Labour leadership and the party's MPs is over.

Both this and Corbyn's reaction to the Salisbury assassination has brought hostilities back into the open.

There could also be a real political cost.

'Corbyn will be judged for his actions'

Labour already had a problem with the Jewish vote. At the general election, on paper Labour should have won three more seats, Finchley & Golders Green, Hendon and Chipping Barnet.

But the swing in all three seats was less than in the rest of the city: the Jewish vote, which is large in these areas, just wasn't turning out for Labour. In the event of another tight election seats like this will be crucial.

Moreover, in May every London borough council is up for election and Labour figures fear this incident could cost them dear again.

Barnet was one of the great hopes for Labour, they had ambitions to take full control of the council from the Tories for the first time since its creation in 1964.

I spoke to one Barnet Labour figure today who says thinks this will put pay to that.

Perceptions matter in politics, however unfair we might think them to be.

There are plenty of people on social media who claim that questions about this mural and anti-Semitism in the Labour Party more generally are a media smear against the Labour leader.

To those people I would simply say this: if an old Facebook post of Theresa May was discovered, inquiring as to "why" an anti-Islamic mural was being removed from London's streets, what would your reaction be?

What, indeed, would be Mr Corbyn's? I think if we're honest, we know the answer.