Labour Lords Take Out Newspaper Advert To Criticise Jeremy Corbyn Over Anti-Semitism

17 July 2019, 10:16 | Updated: 17 July 2019, 10:18

Over 60 Labour Party peers have released a Guardian newspaper advert, accusing their leader of not tackling the "toxic culture" of anti-Semitism in the party.

The advert opens with: "The Labour Party welcomes everyone irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Except, it seems, Jews."

It directly addresses the Labour Party leader, stating: "This is your legacy Mr Corbyn".

The 64 Labour members of the House of Lords who signed the advert stated that Mr Corbyn had failed to accept responsibility for "allowing anti-Semitism to grow in our party".

The advert says: "You still haven't opened your eyes. You still haven't told the whole truth. You still haven't accepted your responsibility. You have failed to defend our party's anti-racist values. You have therefore failed the test of leadership."

The peers state in the advert that Mr Corbyn is accountable as Leader for allowing anti-Semitism to grow and for "presiding over the most shaming period in Labour's history".

A party spokesman said: "Regardless of false and misleading claims by those hostile to Jeremy Corbyn's politics, Labour is taking decisive action against anti-Semitism."

The peers who signed the advert include anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain, and former cabinet ministers John Reid and Hilary Armstrong.

Labour has come under fire for attacking whistleblowers who spoke out about anti-Semitism in a BBC Panorama documentary.

Earlier this week a group of MPs wrote a letter to Jeremy Corbyn, offering to investigate anti-Semitism in the party.