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Dame Margaret Hodge: Antisemitism I've faced under Corbyn's Labour is 'much much higher' than from Nick Griffin's BNP

Embattled MP also says: 'The heart of the Labour Party I joined must still be there... but at the moment we are antisemitic'

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Dame Margaret Hodge has said the antisemitism she has faced from Jeremy Corbyn's Labour is "much, much" worse than she faced when she campaigned against the BNP's Nick Griffin.

Dame Margaret, who fought off a challenge to her Barking seat from the far-right leader in 2010, said she received "some" Jew-hate during that battle but the antisemitism she faced since 2015 was "much, much higher".

"That really shook me," she said on a podcast with Sky News' Sophy Ridge. "It's because of social media... Two out of three was from the left. You've always had antisemitism on the extremes of the left.

"What's happened under Corbyn is that has been allowed to go, in a legitimate way, into the mainstream and that is truly shocking."

She added: "I am a fighter. I've fought a few battles in my life... I am going to fight for the values that made me join Labour when I was 18."

When asked if she believed Labour was still, as she claimed, the party of "those who believe in equality", she said: "On a bad day I think 'what on earth is this?' On a good day, I think Labour has been around for 120 years, I've been a member for 56 years. Corbyn hasn't been there for four yet. So that the heart of the Labour Party I joined must still be there... But at the moment we are antisemitic."

She said Mr Corbyn was "not showing zero tolerance" to Jew-hate, as the party has vowed to do.

She also accused him of "allowing... enabling" antisemitism through his personal failure to distinguish between Jewishness, Zionism and support for the Netanyahu government.

"He can't distinguish between someone being Jewish, which I am, somebody believing in the right of the Jews to have self-determination in their own land, which I do, and somebody being a paid up member of the Netanyahu fan club, which I'm not. For him, the three go together."

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