UK’s Labor Warns Against “Civil War” Within Party

By Staff, Agencies

Britain’s main opposition Labor Party on Friday urged shocked members to stand united against anti-Semitism, appealing against a renewal of internecine “civil war” following the suspension of its former leader.

Jeremy Corbyn was exiled pending investigation after he refused to accept all the findings of a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission [EHRC], which said his office had allegedly broken the law in its handling of complaints by Jewish members.

New leader Keir Starmer, calling the report a “day of shame” for Labor, said he was “deeply disappointed” in Corbyn for blaming party critics as well as the media for exaggerating the scale of anti-Semitism.

Starmer has won strong backing from Jewish groups which, in evidence to the EHRC, detailed a deluge of alleged anti-Semitic abuse online and in party meetings during Corbyn’s leadership, including death threats at the hands of left-wingers.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are trying to exploit Labor’s divisions, noting Starmer had continued to serve in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet when alleged anti-Semitic incidents were on the rise.

Corbyn’s ally Len McCluskey, the head of the Unite union, one of Labor’s biggest financial backers, said the suspension would “create chaos within the party and in doing so compromise Labor’s chances of a general election victory”.

“I don’t want a split in the Labor party. I stood as leader of the Labor party on the basis that I would unite the party, but also that I would tackle anti-Semitism,” Starmer told Sky News.

“Both of those can be done. There’s no reason for a civil war in our party.”