Almost four years ago, Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party and infected it with the vile poison of anti-Semitism.

Not a day has gone by when I haven’t been targeted by an online army of anti-Semites who work in his name. Faced with a deluge of anti-Jewish hate, I didn’t think the situation could get much worse.

But I was wrong. For now Corbyn’s most senior advisor, Andrew Murray, has been using a private email address to make rulings on anti-Semitism complaints in secret – with the sole intention of overturning decisions to protect his pals.

Dame Margaret Hodge: I joined Labour because it was the natural home for Jews, proudly standing for equality and anti-racism. But under Corbyn (above) these values have been buried and anti-Semitism has become the acceptable face of racism on the Left

It is sickening that Murray tried to excuse a suspended Labour councillor who, like Corbyn once did, questioned whether a grossly bigoted mural depicting hook-nosed Jews was anti-Semitic.

Many of us within the Labour Party have long suspected that the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations is rotten to the core.

Take Lisa Forbes, Labour’s candidate in yesterday’s Peterborough by- election, who has a disgraceful track record. In the past year alone, Lisa has fought against Labour adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that has been endorsed by all major government bodies.

She also accused the Prime Minister of having a ‘Zionist slave-master’s agenda’, and championed the lie that Israel has set up murderous Islamist terrorist groups to help consolidate its position in the Middle East – even though these barbaric organisations want to destroy Israel.

Take Lisa Forbes (above with Jeremy Corbyn), Labour’s candidate in yesterday’s Peterborough by- election, who has a disgraceful track record. In the past year alone, Lisa has fought against Labour adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that has been endorsed by all major government bodies

It is astounding that she was ever chosen as a Labour parliamentary candidate. Either no serious vetting took place, or, worse, the party wilfully turned a blind eye to her hateful views.

Several sources have told me that Corbyn’s inner circle have long discussed complaints using private email addresses – knowing that this allows them to slip under the radar and avoid all scrutiny.

Indeed, the deception at the heart of Corbyn’s top team was displayed earlier this week, when it was revealed that another senior Corbyn loyalist, David Prescott, faces allegations of sexual harassment.

It proved that even when Corbyn has knowledge of serious allegations, he fails to act on them. These machinations at the heart of my party did not exist when I joined Labour 56 years ago.

My family knew the consequences of anti-Semitism first-hand – my grandmother was shot dead by the Nazis at the gates of a Lithuanian concentration camp.

I joined Labour because it was the natural home for Jews, proudly standing for equality and anti-racism.

But under Corbyn these values have been buried and anti-Semitism has become the acceptable face of racism on the Left.

But the vile anti-Semitic abuse I experienced during that campaign is nothing compared with the Jew-bashing hatred I have received from Corbyn’s acolytes. Every week, someone says I am a traitor who works for Israel and, rather bafflingly, a Nazi sympathiser

It came as no surprise when, last Tuesday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that it is to launch a full investigation into the Labour Party for widespread and unlawful Jew-hate. Only one other political party has been subjected to this humiliation – the fascist British National Party.

For Corbyn to have also led us down this path is unforgiveable. In the 2010 general election, I fought and defeated the BNP when their vile leader Nick Griffin stood against me in Barking and Dagenham.

Taking on him and his neo-Nazi thugs was one of the most important battles of my life – and stopping the BNP from gaining their first foothold in Westminster remains one of my proudest achievements.

But the vile anti-Semitic abuse I experienced during that campaign is nothing compared with the Jew-bashing hatred I have received from Corbyn’s acolytes.

Every week, someone says I am a traitor who works for Israel and, rather bafflingly, a Nazi sympathiser.

Corbyn supporters tell me I have financed the murder of innocent children and should slit my own wrists. One Corbyn fanatic even said it should have been me, not Jo Cox, who was murdered three years ago.

The recent European elections were a revealing experience. All too often I was told by traditional Labour supporters that, because of Corbyn’s toxic leadership, they could not vote for my party.

On a bad day, I despair. But, more often, I remind myself that the Labour Party is almost 120 years old and has achieved so much. I have been a party member for over half a century and Corbyn has been leader for less than four years.

Yet now, thanks to his shameful leadership, an anti-Semitism crisis has engulfed my once-great party.

A fight for the heart and soul of Labour is raging. The party has been hijacked and we must wrestle it back.