I doubt this issue will go away. The state controlled BBC will make sure it doesn't as will the likes of Hodge, Ellman, Berger, Smeeth, Sweeting and Mann. I have no doubt that most people don't even consider it (Corbyn is a racist and 'anti-semite) as they suffer NHS waiting, care home closures, care costs, housing issues, universal credit cuts to benefits, cost of living rises, debt issues etc.
Criag Murray makes a good point in this article
New Labour's Irrational Adoration of Thatcher - Craig Murray
"I support Scottish Independence, so I am in a different position to voters in England. But, despite the fact large numbers of my friends have joined the Labour Party to support Jeremy Corbyn, I could not vote Labour in most of England. Could I advise somebody to vote for Wes Streeting, John Mann, Jess Phillips, Stephen Kinnock or their ilk? No, under no circumstances.
Labour party members need to bite the bullet on reselection. Being a Labour MP cannot be a sinecure granted for life irrespective of behaviour. The party is plainly dysfunctional, and it is so because the large majority of MPs are totally removed from the views of the membership. There are only two ways to resolve this. Either the MPs will have to leave parliament or the members will have to leave the party. There is no coherent party at present.
The Blairite Labour MPs have painted themselves into a corner by their decision to brand Jeremy Corbyn as personally a racist and an anti-semite. If I was in a party led by a racist and anti-semite, I would leave the party. The idea that they can continue as members of parliament for the party while expressing such views about the leader is a nonsense. But they do not wish to leave, because they would lose their comfy jobs. All of the right wing Labour MPs realise they would never win an election on their own account, without Labour Party support. It would be hilarious if not so serious, that they claim Frank Field can resign the Labour whip but this does not mean leave the party, and that he must still be the Labour Party candidate at the next election!
Their hope is twofold. Firstly, that the charges of anti-semitism against Corbyn will be widely believed and lead to a drastic drop in public support which will force Corbyn out. This is not happening. The public realise that the charges of anti-semitism are false and based on a definition of the word which simply means critic of Israel. Other than the normal polling malaise which follows any split in a party, there is no drastic plunge in support for Labour of the kind which would definitely follow if the public thought the party were led by an anti-semite.
To put it another way, either 40% of the public are anti-semites, or the public do not take these accusations seriously.
The Blairites other hope is that, by the Labour Party adopting the IHRA’s malicious definition of anti-semitism as embracing criticism of Israel, they will manage through legal action to force Jeremy Corbyn’s expulsion from the Labour Party. This attempt to use the British Establishment to circumvent party democracy is extraordinary.
By bringing things to this pitch, the Blairites have made compromise impossible. Either Corbyn and most of the members will have to go, or the Blairite MPs will.
Something must give. That is why I urge everybody who is in the Labour Party to take action today to push for mandatory reselection of MPs. The matter is urgent, and no party can resist the united force of its members for long".
Hodge has already threatened to take the Labour party to court if she was disciplined for calling Corbyn a racist and anti semite. Field's has also threatened to take the Labour party to court if he is expelled for the Labour party.
"And this is from
Richard Angell, director of
Progress, the centrist
Labour organisation (rightwing in the eyes of its critics, but self-defined as “centre-left”). Angell said:
The Jewish community made it clear and simple to Labour: pass the IHRA definition in full – no caveats, no compromises.
Jeremy Corbyn and the Momentum-dominated NEC have just failed the most basic test. A ‘right to be racist’ protection when debating the Middle East is not just wrong, it is harms the cause of peace but it will also continue a culture where Jewish people cannot feel at home in Labour.
Today’s decision is an insult. Labour does not know better than Jewish people about antisemitism.
The four hours it took for today’s retrograde step to appear shows there are committed anti-racists at Labour top table but those apathetic to antisemitism won out, again. The NEC has bought the Labour party into disrepute".
Charges of anti semitism will be a constant thorn in the side for Corbyn and the Labour party. When a Blairite MP is deselected it will be because they stood up against the 'anti semitic racist' Corbyn. Even Frank Fields jumped on the bandwagon about anti semitism this is despite this remark in 1993, in an interview in the Independent,
""He (Frank Fields) attacked Lord Joseph, one of Margaret Thatcher's favourite ministers, for an ill- advised speech on birth control among the poor, calling him '
a leading member of the Jewish community applying Nazi attitudes towards the poor'. Field's courage and obduracy were both noted". If Corbyn had said this. The outcry would be very loud and widespread and he would be in court.
The Blairites know the game is up if they leave the gravy train and attempt to do a Gang of Four. But that will not stop them trying to damage a Corbyn led Labour party from winning the next general election.
