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Jewish Voice For Labour co-founder condemned for suggesting Labour MP Luciana Berger is dishonest

Ms Berger has been stridently critical of her party's failure to tackle its antisemitism

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The co-founder of fringe, pro-Corbyn group Jewish Voice For Labour has been condemned for suggesting a prominent Jewish MP who has criticised Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism is dishonest.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi was speaking on LBC radio when she attacked Luciana Berger, saying the MP had raised Labour Jew-hate "at the apposite moment to suit her anti-Corbyn agenda".

When asked about the antisemitic mural Jeremy Corbyn defended - which Ms Berger raised last year, Ms Wimbourne-Idrissi said the Labour leader "didn't look at the damn thing".

She added: "He thought the artist was being censored unfairly... If people were honest, including Luciana Berger, who dredged this up at the apposite moment to suit her anti-Corbyn agenda."

The mural, which depicted bankers playing games on the backs of oppressed workers, was painted in Tower Hamlets and selected for removal in 2012 by the local council for its antisemitism.

Mr Corbyn asked why it was being removed in a Facebook post, which resurfaced in 2015 when he was running for Labour leader and again in 2018 when Ms Berger raised his failure to apologise for it.

During her LBC appearance, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi said the mural "was discussed in the pages of the Jewish Chronicle by Jewish people, eminent Jewish people, by some of them saying 'well it's a little bit dodgy, but I don't think it's antisemitic, could be construed that way'.

"Suddenly everbody is dishonestly saying 'obviously it's antisemitic, it should never have been painted in the first place'. All these things, every single one of these allegations, I can pick apart."

In response, Jewish Leadership Council chairman Jonathan Goldstein said Ms Wimborne-Idrissi should be kicked out of Labour, if the party were "serious about zero tolerance". 

 

Ms Wimborne-Idrissi and Jenny Manson co-founded JVL, a fringe group that has sought to downplay the scale of the party's Jew-hate crisis, in 2017.

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