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Former Independent editor calls for Corbyn to be 'removed from public life immediately'

Simon Kelner said he couldn't 'see how or why Jeremy Corbyn should survive this' politically

August 30, 2018 14:00
Simon Kelner
1 min read

The former editor of the Independent has said Jeremy Corbyn should be "removed from public life immediately", saying the Labour leader's comments about Zionists were “beyond doubt antisemitic".

Simon Kelner, who was chief editor of the paper from 1998 to 2008 and again from 2010 to 2011, wrote a column for the i paper on Wednesday, in which he said that “up to now, I have had something of an equivocal view on this row. I have not believed that Mr Corbyn has a prima facie case to answer on antisemitism.

"But what he said – albeit five years ago – is beyond doubt antisemitic.”

Mr Kelner, who describes himself as a "liberal-minded British Jew" and not a Zionist, continued: “Anyone who had said such a thing about British Asians or our Caribbean community should be, and I hope would be, removed from public life immediately. I can’t see how or why Jeremy Corbyn should survive this.”

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