by Atul Hatwal

Revelations on Ken Livingstone’s anti-Semitic views might have led the news in recent days, but Ed Miliband was fully aware of them in 2012.

Despite this, he still gave Livingstone his full backing at the last London Mayoral election.

The evidence that Labour’s leadership understood the detail of Livingstone’s opinions came yesterday in two devastating tweets from Miliband’s top spinner and consigliere, Tom Baldwin.

Yep. And @edmiliband also stopped Livingstone airing his ridiculous & ignorant views on Hitler and Zionism in 2012 https://t.co/vY1NiJj1Qe — Tom Baldwin (@TomBaldwin66) April 30, 2016

@PolProfSteve @mehdirhasan Livingstone wanted it in his “memoirs” before the mayoral election. Ed told him he was wrong and to take it out. — Tom Baldwin (@TomBaldwin66) April 30, 2016

The purpose behind Tom Baldwin’s tweets was to highlight the anti-racist bona fides of his old boss but inadvertently he made the classic PR’s mistake: to confuse presentation and substance.

Before the 2012 Mayoral election, when Ed Miliband was on the stump for Livingstone, he knew exactly what Livingstone thought about Hitler, Zionism and the Jewish people.

He knew enough to force Livingstone to excise the relevant passages from his memoirs but did not feel sufficiently strongly to take action against the candidate for the substance of his anti-Semitic views.

All that mattered was what the public saw. Labour’s commitment to opposing anti-Semitism was a façade.

In his own deluded way, Jeremy Corbyn is probably genuine in his belief that Ken Livingstone is not anti-Semitic.

Ed Miliband knew otherwise.

Perhaps this is why Labour’s most prominent Jewish politician, someone who has authority as a former leader, has been silent on Livingstone’s recent extraordinary outbursts.

From a practical perspective, these revelations also bolster Ken Livingstone’s case for being allowed to remain a member of the Labour party.

He has maintained that these have always been his views and people have known them. Now, Tom Baldwin has confirmed this position.

Not only were they known, they were considered and regarded, at worst, as rather maladroit.

The same defence can be applied to the legions of closet anti-Semites that have come bounding into the open to defend Livingstone.

For example, here’s David White, secretary of Croydon Central CLP, tweeting a journalist at the local newspaper, the Croydon Advertiser, that Livingstone’s comments were “largely accurate.”

To an extent, none of this should be a surprise. Alongside Labour’s proud history of fighting racism runs a persistent undercurrent of recalcitrance in confronting it among its own supporters.

The current focus is on anti-Semitism, but this issue is broader.

I vividly recall a discussion, two years ago, with a member of Ed Miliband’s CLP, Doncaster North, about the events to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Miner’s strike.

They talked with pride of the day’s activities and community spirit as people from local villages and towns came together, but then almost broke down in tears of shame when describing the rousing choruses of “I’d rather be a Paki than a scab,” which echoed around the pub in the evening.

And just last week, the Newham Recorder reported accusations of racist banter between the Mayor and Deputy Mayor,

“Before agreeing an item on the agenda at that meeting which stated “no need has been demonstrated for new gypsy-traveller [sic] accommodation at the present time”, deputy mayor Lester Hudson asked if he could have the addresses of the objectors. Mayor Sir Robin Wales replied: ‘I think what Lester is saying is that we would be very happy to set up a site right next to their house.’”

To put this in context: how different is Robin Wales’ quote from Nigel Farage in 2014 saying that British people should be worried if a Romanian family moved in next door?

The nascent anti-Semitism of the hard left has been coddled and emboldened under Jeremy Corbyn. But it, and the wider racist tendencies in the party, pre-date his leadership.

Successive leaders have chosen to look away and ignore them. Action involves confrontation and its many years since Labour has had a leader strong enough to confront the membership with some uncomfortable truths.

Now, if Labour wants to salvage its reputation, the confrontation is unavoidable.

Jeremy Corbyn certainly has the mandate from members.

The question is, does he understand what he needs to do?

Atul Hatwal is editor of Uncut

Tags: anti-semitism, Atul Hatwal, Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Livingstone, Racism, Tom Baldwin