Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Ivan Lewis adds to scrutiny by Jewish community of Labour leadership candidate, saying views are ‘cause for concern’

The shadow cabinet minister Ivan Lewis has claimed Jeremy Corbyn expresses support for and fails to condemn people who have engaged in antisemitic rhetoric.



The senior Labour MP said leadership race frontrunner Corbyn had shown, at the very least, “poor judgment” in his actions, as he urged his local party not to vote for him.

Senior Labour figures from Tony Blair to Alan Johnson have been warning for some time that Corbyn could split the party. But the Islington North MP’s specific policies and views have come under more direct attack in recent days, with rival candidate Yvette Cooper saying his plan to reopen coalmines and print money to invest in infrastructure were not credible.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ivan Lewis said he thought overall that Corbyn on too many issues ‘advocates solutions which belong to the past’. Photograph: LNP/Rex Shutterstock

In a separate intervention, he faced fierce criticism this week on the front page of the Jewish Chronicle, which claimed Corbyn associated with “Holocaust deniers, terrorists and some outright antisemites”.

One of the newspaper’s claims is that Corbyn donated to Deir Yassin Remembered, run by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, who claimed in a blogpost – which has now been made private – that the Labour candidate is a “long-standing associate”, who has attended his annual commemorations.

However, Corbyn’s office said it has no dealings with Eisen and utterly opposes his views.

Questions have also been raised about him writing a letter in support of a vicar accused of sharing an antisemitic conspiracy theory about 9/11.

In response to the Jewish Chronicle’s story, Corbyn’s team released a statement saying he was “proud to represent a multicultural constituency of people from all over the world and to speak at every opportunity of understanding between Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths”.

“He has delivered this message in all places of worship. No place of worship should ever be attacked and nobody’s right to practise their faith in peace should ever be prevented.

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“Jeremy has involved himself in Middle East issues for many years, meeting many people and groups with whom he has huge differences of opinion – but he believes that only dialogue can bring about peace.

“The Holocaust was the most vile period in human history and the Jewish people were scapegoated by the Nazis. Some people in Britain, including Jeremy’s own parents, stood in Cable Street in 1936 to halt the rise of nazism in our country. Only by unity of all people and all faiths can we defeat racism and build an inclusive, tolerant society.

“Jeremy’s very strongly held view is there should not be any antisemitic, Islamophobic or racist slogans or banners at any demonstration, ever.”

However, the statement does not appear to have calmed the row, as Lewis is the first senior Labour figure to criticise Corbyn on some of these grounds.

In a letter to his local party members, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary said: “Some of his stated political views are a cause for serious concern. At the very least he has shown very poor judgment in expressing support for and failing to speak out against people who have engaged not in legitimate criticism of Israeli governments but in antisemitic rhetoric.

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“It saddens me to have to say to some on the left of British politics that anti-racism means zero tolerance of antisemitism, no ifs, and no buts. I have said the same about Islamophobia and other forms of racism to a minority of my constituents who make unacceptable statements.”

Lewis, who comes from a British-Jewish family and is a former chief executive of the Manchester Jewish Federation, also said he thought overall that Corbyn on too many issues “advocates solutions which belong to the past and will not equip the country or the Labour party with the vision and policies which can rise to the challenges of the future”.

Lewis said he will be voting for Liz Kendall first, Yvette Cooper second and Andy Burnham third.