This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

An influential group of MPs, including shadow cabinet ministers, are to adopt tough new guidelines on antisemitism – including measures proposed by Jewish leaders that were not accepted by the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, at his meeting with them last month.

The 38 MPs sit in the Commons on a joint Labour and Co-operative party ticket, and include the shadow international development secretary, Kate Osamor, the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, and backbenchers Chris Leslie and Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

Among them are several Jewish MPs, including Luciana Berger, Louise Ellman and Alex Sobel.

The parliamentary group, led by Jim McMahon and Anna Turley, have written to the Co-op party’s national executive committee (NEC), recommending their party adopt proposals put to Corbyn by the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies.

Among their proposals, the Jewish groups have said MPs should not share platforms with expelled or suspended members who are accused of antisemitism and should adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

The Co-op party sets its own independent policies, but several MPs in the group are understood to be keen that their action will set a precedent that could pave the way for tougher action on antisemitism by Labour if, as expected, it is adopted by the Co-op party’s NEC.

The motion says the parliamentary group calls on the party to “urgently review the five proposals made by the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies to the Labour Party” and to “consider how the Co-operative Party can adopt these measures going forward”.

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The MPs’ statement says some of their number have faced antisemitic attacks and the parliamentary group “stands in solidarity with their colleagues against this hateful and utterly unacceptable behaviour”.

Several of the measures proposed have met with some resistance from Labour. Corbyn is understood to be uncomfortable with no-platforming members suspended pending an investigation, when the cases have not yet been proven.

He is also understood to have argued in his meeting with Jewish groups that he cannot dictate who his MPs deal with, though community leaders believe he has sufficient influence to do so.

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Jewish leaders also argued Labour should adopt the IHRA definition – including all its clauses and examples. However, Labour is concerned about one of the examples of potential antisemitism given in the IHRA definition: “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour”.

Concerns were raised that this example could preclude criticism of Israel’s creation, though its defenders argue it is meant to highlight that the concept of a Jewish homeland is not in itself racist. Corbyn is set to meet the groups again later this summer.

Labour and Co-op MP Gareth Thomas, who chairs the latter’s NEC, said the party would discuss tightening its rules on antisemitism in June.

Separately, members of the Jewish Labour Movement held a meeting with the party’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, on Thursday to discuss further steps Labour could take in tackling antisemitism.

Representatives of JLM, who said they were turned away from an NEC meeting on antisemitism earlier this week, said Formby had “agreed that [antisemitism] was the reason we lost in Barnet and other areas of high Jewish populations” at last week’s local elections. The former Barnet councillor Adam Langleben, who lost his West Hendon seat last week, was among those in attendance.

However, the group said “too much of the conversation [at the meeting] focused on process” and Jewish Labour members wanted to see “very public, very urgent and very vocal steps”.