The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into Labour antisemitism, published last Thursday, was damning.
That was no surprise; racism has shamed the party for some years. The only surprise was the clarity and firmness of the EHRC’s findings. No mealy-mouthed legal document this — rather, a devastating indictment that repays reading by anyone who wishes to understand properly a foul episode in British politics.
Quite rightly, Sir Keir Starmer has pledged not only to embrace the demands of the EHRC but to go further and change the culture of the Labour Party.
As we pointed out last week, this is vital — but fine words and pledges will make no difference. What matters are actions. The suspension of Jeremy Corbyn was a good start. But it must move to expulsion.
And although he was, in effect, the ringleader, he must not be the only antisemite booted out. In the aftermath of the report, the floodgates opened. Corbyn-supporting Labour members swarmed social media with posts blaming the victims of antisemitism for the report.
It will be a large undertaking for the party’s new disciplinary processes but if Labour is serious about changing, each of them should be expelled.
In that context, while those Labour members who fought Jew hate (often at great personal cost) deserve praise, those who said or did nothing but now try to portray themselves as brave warriors against racism deserve only contempt.
At the top of that list stands Fabian Hamilton, the (Jewish) MP for Leeds North East, who told Jews to be be “less hysterical and angry” about Labour antisemitism and spoke out in defence of Chris Williamson.
Mr Hamilton now says he “regrets” taking the “wrong” approach. Doubtless he does, because the party is no longer run by Jew haters and there is no career boost to defending them.
Mr Hamilton may be a particularly egregious example of Labour’s fellow travellers of antisemitism but his behaviour is fairly standard for the majority of Labour MPs who were not themselves racist but who either stood by and watched or came to the defence of the racists in the supposed interests of the party. They are, in their own way, as responsible as the others.
