To the duffel-coated members of Labour’s ‘loony Left’, one particular weekly newspaper was, for much of the Eighties, required reading.

Called the Labour Herald, and published each Friday with a cover price of 25p, it offered a unique and at times comically misguided take on the affairs of the day.

In 1983, for example, when co-edited by Ken Livingstone — then leader of the Greater London Council — it ran a ‘special photo report’ praising the achievements of the murderous North Korean dictator, Kim Il-sung.

Kim’s country, where around a million citizens were then being killed in purges, was a ‘model of successful, self-reliant socialist development’.

To the duffel-coated members of Labour’s Left, one particular weekly newspaper was, for much of the Eighties, required reading. Pictured, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell at the Labour Party conference last year

In 1983, when co-edited by Ken Livingstone — then leader of the Greater London Council — the paper ran a ‘special photo report’ praising the achievements of the murderous North Korean dictator, Kim Il-sung. Pictured, John McDonnell and Ken Livingstone in 1982

A few years later, when Livingstone had been replaced as co-editor by a young Labourite called John McDonnell, the Herald decided that all ownership of private property should be abolished. So far, so nutty.

Yet spend an extended period of time leafing through its yellowing back issues, which are held at the British Library, and something more sinister begins to emerge.

Put bluntly, the newspaper didn’t just occupy an extreme and at times eccentric berth on the far Left of the political spectrum; it also had an ugly habit of publishing articles that were virulently anti-Semitic.

Take, a cartoon it printed in July 1982, under Livingstone’s co-editorship, headlined: The Final Solution. It depicted Menachem Begin, then the Israeli Prime Minister, as a bloodthirsty Nazi officer, trampling in jackboots over a pile of Arab corpses.

So outraged was the Jewish community at the racist nature of the image — which recalled viciously racist Hitler-era German cartoons — its leaders reported the paper to the Attorney General.

Take also a feature the Labour Herald published the same year advancing the false anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that ‘Zionist’ Jews (those who believe in the right of Jews to inhabit an Israeli homeland) collaborated with Nazis during World War II. ‘Basically, your Zionist argues with the Nazis that Jews cannot be assimilated into Gentile society,’ it read.

‘From this, he says that Jews need a land of their own, not just any land, either, but only the land of Palestine.’

Jewish leaders, it continued, had shamelessly: ‘Used the sympathy stirred up . . . after the Holocaust for their own devious ends.’

Basically, your Zionist argues with the Nazis that Jews cannot be assimilated into Gentile society. From this, he says that Jews need a land of their own, not just any land, either, but only the land of Palestine.’ Labour Herald feature

Then there was a 1985 piece, published during McDonnell’s co-editorship, which compared the Israeli government to the Nazis by claiming it confined Palestinians to ‘concentration camps’.

A few weeks later, the paper went on to endorse terrorist attacks against the country’s authorities, to counter what it called ‘the racism at the heart of the Israeli state’.

For perhaps obvious reasons, this collection of unsavoury articles — most of which sparked controversy at the time — have since been largely forgotten.

Yet today, some three decades after the far-Left newspaper ceased publication, they suddenly seem more relevant than ever.

To blame is a growing political row over an ugly brand of anti-Semitism which appears to have taken root in Labour circles since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as party leader last year.

It has generated endless headlines thanks to an extraordinary succession of Labour activists and officials who have been disciplined by the party after being caught (largely by the media) making deeply offensive remarks about Jews.

Some, such as Khadim Hussain, the former Labour mayor of Bradford, have used the internet to spread the bizarre anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Israeli spies helped found Islamic State, in a secret plot to force Western nations to invade the Middle East.

Writing on Facebook, Hussain claimed that it’s Israel who ‘created the so-called ISIS and who is arming these vile terrorists’.

Put bluntly, the newspaper didn’t just occupy an extreme and at times eccentric berth on the far Left of the political spectrum; it also had an ugly habit of publishing articles that were virulently anti-Semitic. Pictured, Ken Livingstone with the Labour Herald

Then he shared a second post which complained that the deaths of Africans are not given enough airtime in history lessons because: ‘Your school education system only tells you about Anne Frank and the six million Zionists that were killed by Hitler.’

Other anti-Semites, such as Vicki Kirby, the vice-chairman of the Labour Party in Woking, Surrey, have simply used social media to gratuitously post racist insults.

She said on Twitter that Jews have ‘big noses’ and like to ‘slaughter the oppressed’, concluding the post with the phrase ‘lol’, meaning ‘laugh out loud’.

Elsewhere, recent days have seen controversy over Beinazir Lasharie, a Labour councillor in Kensington and former Big Brother contestant who also accused Israel of financing ISIS, and Bob Campbell, from Middlesbrough, an activist with the militant, Corbyn-supporting Momentum movement, whose Facebook timeline contained a picture of a rat with the Star of David, plus the slogan: ‘The real plague.’

Some of the Labour Herald’s articles caused great upset to the Jewish community in the Eighties, and damaged relations with the Labour Party at that time. We hope that the lessons of history will be learnt. Dave Rich, of the Community Security Trust

In Thurrock, Essex, a Labour member called Scott Nelson was kicked out of the party for circulating a number of anti-Semitic tweets, including a picture of the Israeli flag torn apart to reveal a swastika.

Then, in North London, where Jeremy Corbyn is an MP, a socialist former bus driver called Gerry Downing was suspended from Labour for saying the 9/11 hijackers ‘must never be condemned’ and writing extensively about the troublesome ‘Jewish question’ of Zionists ruling the world.

To critics, the sheer volume of these incidents has laid bare a stark, but simple point: that, in the words of Jeremy Newmark, head of the Jewish Labour Movement, Corbyn’s election has sparked a ‘resurgence of the acceptance of anti-Semitism’ in the party.

As Newmark and others see it, world views that have for years been confined to what one might call the party’s ‘lunatic fringe’ are now, thanks to his leadership, creeping into the mainstream. One such world view revolves around unquestioning support for the Palestinian lobby, and equally intransigent opposition to Israel. As the Labour Herald showed all those years ago, it often manifests itself in knee-jerk anti-Semitism. Another revolves around the idea that a sinister group of capitalists, led by Jewish bankers, is seeking to control the world’s media and economy.

To see how ugly its adherents can look in practice, one need only venture into such internet chat-rooms as the Labour Forum, a prominent, invitation-only Facebook group which has around 25,000 members.

Earlier this week, a blogger called Daniel Sugarman did just that, and within a few seconds stumbled across posts by Joanne Parkin, a Labour activist from Darlington, claiming (falsely) that the media mogul Rupert Murdoch is a ‘Zionist Jew’ at the centre of a sinister plot to control the media. She also called George Osborne (who is actually Anglican) a ‘Zionist pig Jew’.

During the early Eighties, when it was publishing racist cartoons, the newspaper was rightly regarded as an organ of the extreme far-Left, whose — often wrongheaded and occasionally odious — views were almost entirely irrelevant to mainstream political debate. Pictured Ken Livingstone (centre) with John McDonnell (left)

So widespread is such abuse that Lord Levy, Tony Blair’s former fundraiser and one of the most prominent Jewish figures in the party, gave a TV interview a few days ago threatening to ‘question my being a Labour Peer and proud member of the Labour Party’ if it isn’t stamped out.

Tom Harris, a former Labour minister, recently wrote a newspaper comment article claiming: ‘Labour does indeed have a problem with Jews.’ Wes Streeting, an MP, used Facebook to declare that the party ‘looks apathetic’ about anti-Semitism.

All of which brings us back, in a roundabout way, to the Labour Herald.

During the early Eighties, when it was publishing racist cartoons, the newspaper was rightly regarded as an organ of the extreme far-Left, whose — often wrongheaded and occasionally odious — views were almost entirely irrelevant to mainstream political debate.

Yet today, things are suddenly very different. Former co-editor John McDonnell (who often used it to run articles praising Corbyn, then Labour MP for Islington) is now Labour’s Shadow Chancellor. Ken Livingstone is a key Corbynista and recently tipped for a peerage. He was conducting Labour’s defence review before handing over to Emily Thornberry.

If people express these [anti-Semitic] views, full stop, they’re out [of the Labour Party]. John McDonnell

In other words, two of the men who were at the helm of the sometimes anti-Semitic Labour Herald, and who are steeped in its political traditions, recently became the party’s biggest power-brokers.

This fact concerns many Jews, including Dave Rich, of the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitic attacks.

‘Some of the Labour Herald’s articles caused great upset to the Jewish community in the Eighties, and damaged relations with the Labour Party at that time,’ he tells me. ‘We hope that the lessons of history will be learnt.’

The community also fears that many of the roughly 200,000 Left-wingers who have joined Labour since Corbyn’s rise to prominence subscribe to the brand of far-Left anti-Semitism once propagated by the newspaper.

To traditional Labourites, whose party has a long and noble tradition of opposing all forms of racism — and whose last leader, Ed Miliband, was of Jewish heritage — the phenomenon is deeply disturbing.

Jeremy Corbyn has, to his credit, publicly criticised all forms of anti-Semitism, in particular, speaking out against far-Left abuse directed at Luciana Berger, a Jewish Labour MP who recently received 2,500 hostile online messages (many under the hashtag #filthyjewishbitch) in three days, after attending an anti-Semitism conference.

To blame is a growing political row over an ugly brand of anti-Semitism which appears to have taken root in Labour circles since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as party leader last year

Jeremy Corbyn has, to his credit, publicly criticised all forms of anti-Semitism, in particular, speaking out against far-Left abuse directed at Luciana Berger, a Jewish Labour MP. Pictured, Ken Livingstone (left), Gerry Adams (centre), and Jeremy Corbyn (second right) take a walk on Westminster Bridge in the 80s

So, too, has McDonnell, who this week said: ‘If people express these [anti-Semitic] views, full stop, they’re out [of the Labour Party].’

Yet not everyone is convinced. To this end, an un-named ‘senior Labour MP’ was recently quoted in the Telegraph saying that Berger’s name had been added to a leaked list of Labour MPs regarded as ‘hostile’ by Corbyn’s office ‘because she is Jewish’ (a suggestion Berger is believed to regard as credible).

Not helping Corbyn’s case, on the PR front, is the fact that he also boasts a long and inglorious history of allying himself with virulent anti-Semites, most of them sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

As a backbencher, Corbyn for example attended several events organised by Paul Eisen, a notorious Holocaust denier, and took tea on the Commons terrace with Raed Salah, who has spent time in prison for inciting anti-Jewish hatred.

Salah was once found by a British court to have used a ‘blood libel’ — the medieval slur that Jews bake unleavened bread for the Passover festival using the blood of Gentile children.

What do you expect the Jewish community to feel when you meet people who are blatantly racist? Will you accept that it was inappropriate? Jonathan Arkush, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews

Corbyn has also shared platforms in the Commons with Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese-born fanatic banned from Britain who has denied the Holocaust, and claimed that Europe has made ‘the cult of the Holocaust and Jew-worshiping its alternative religion’.

Elsewhere, the Labour leader is a long-standing supporter of the terrorist organisation Hamas, whose charter instructs supporters to kill Jews. That is in addition to being chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, the lobby group once described by the Jewish commentator Howard Jacobson as a ‘sort of home to Jew-haters’. All of which only adds to the scepticism with which the Labour leader is regarded by Jewish leaders.

Take Jonathan Arkush, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which represents the country’s 300,000 Jews.

He met Corbyn two months ago. ‘I cited Corbyn’s meetings with some seriously unsavoury characters and said to him: “What do you expect the Jewish community to feel when you meet people who are blatantly racist? Will you accept that it was inappropriate?” ’

At the time, Mr Arkush tells me, Corbyn responded that he would ‘reflect’ on the matter.

‘Well, we’ve now had six to eight weeks,’ Arkush says. ‘The time for reflection is up, and people out there need to know what he’s going to say, and to know whether he’s going to acknowledge that the meetings were inappropriate and wouldn’t be repeated.

‘If he doesn’t, then Jewish people will rightly ask: “Is it good enough?” Ideas, views and contacts that were once thought to be on the extreme fringe have now migrated right to the centre of the party, and for us that’s a big worry.’

Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell at the Labour Party conference in Brighton

Elsewhere, the Labour leader is a long-standing supporter of the terrorist organisation Hamas, whose charter instructs supporters to kill Jews

Contributing to the ugly mood music, meanwhile, have been events on university campuses. At Oxford, the co-chairman of the Labour Club, Alex Chalmers, who is not Jewish, resigned in February claiming that a ‘large proportion’ of the party’s undergraduate members have ‘some kind of problem with Jews’.

Around the same time, Rayhan Uddin, a Labour student activist at the London School of Economics, wrote a Facebook post complaining that ‘leading Zionists’ were secretly plotting to take over the student Union.

Meanwhile, at York, the Palestinian Solidarity Society celebrated ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ by staging a play called Seven Jewish Children, which is described by the Board of Deputies as ‘horrifically anti-Israel’, and by the Spectator magazine as a ‘ten-minute blood libel’.

Intriguingly, the events manager of York’s Palestinian Solidarity Society is one Tommy Corbyn, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student who just happens to be Jeremy’s son.

On Facebook, where like many young people he is very active, Tommy is a member of a several discussion groups where anti-Semitic views are regularly shared, including Supporters Of Socialism In Britain, where it was recently alleged that the Israeli government are ‘terrorists’ who finance Islamic State.

He also belongs to the Ken O’Keefe Video Library, dedicated to the work of a prominent American conspiracy theorist once described on Israeli TV as ‘the most dangerous anti-Semite living in the West’.

What is more, Corbyn Jnr has ‘liked’ — an internet term meaning ‘endorsed’ — a series of highly dubious alternative websites, such as that of Friends of Al-Aqsa, a Leicester-based Islamic group whose site has published articles by a number of hate preachers, including Israel Shamir, whom the Guardian describes as being ‘notorious for Holocaust denial’.

For the record, there is no evidence that Tommy has ever personally expressed racist views. Indeed, when the Mail asked about his social media activity, we received a statement from his lawyer saying: ‘Of course Tommy Corbyn is not anti- Semitic and to say otherwise is just plain wrong.’

He’s entitled to be taken at his word. But many in the Jewish community view anti-Semitic slurs shared online as a modern version of those once propagated via the Labour Herald.