The anti-Semitism storm engulfing Jeremy Corbyn deepened last night after the Labour leader was linked to the official at the centre of allegations about the racist bullying of a pregnant Jewish MP.
Luciana Berger – who has been dubbed a ‘dirty little Zionist rat’ by pro-Corbyn activists – is thought to be so disgusted by Labour anti-Semitism she is on the brink of leaving to form a breakaway party.
Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal previously undisclosed links between Mr Corbyn and Alex Scott-Samuel, who has led the drive to force out Ms Berger.
Luciana Berger (pictured) – who has been dubbed a ‘dirty little Zionist rat’ by pro-Corbyn activists – is thought to be so disgusted by Labour anti-Semitism she is on the brink of leaving to form a breakaway party
Alex Scott-Samuel posted this image on his Twitter page meeting Jeremy Corbyn. Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal previously undisclosed links between Mr Corbyn and Dr Scott-Samuel, who has led the drive to force out Ms Berger
Dr Scott-Samuel even met the Labour leader to discuss what he considered the ‘victimisation’ of anti-Zionist Corbynistas like himself.
This newspaper today also publishes more devastating extracts from Tom Bower’s bombshell biography of Corbyn, detailing the full extent of the anti-Semitism scandal on his watch.
Revelations that will further rock the Labour leadership include:
Bower’s account of how Mr Corbyn’s anti-Zionism has its roots in his first job as a union official, where he came to believe in the ‘malign collective power of Jews’;Bower’s exposé of the mood of ‘flippant disdain’ among Mr Corbyn’s staff before a summit with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who protested that the Labour leader associated with people who were ‘blatantly racist’;How Mr Corbyn’s own constituency chairwoman dismissed the anti-Semitism scandal as ‘baseless smears’ which have been ‘orchestrated’ by Israeli ‘fifth columnists’;An admission by Labour MP John Mann that ‘Jew-haters are among us and the lack of action is undoubtedly emboldening them’.Meanwhile, the Government has provocatively tabled a Commons debate for Wednesday on ‘anti-Semitism in modern society’ designed to embarrass the Opposition front bench.
Earlier this month Ms Berger, who is due to give birth in under a fortnight, fought off a constituency motion of no confidence following an outcry by moderate MPs.
Dr Scott-Samuel posted these images on his Twitter page (left and right). He even met the Labour leader to discuss what he considered the ‘victimisation’ of anti-Zionist Corbynistas like himself
It had been approved by Dr Scott-Samuel, chairman of her Liverpool Wavertree constituency party, on the grounds that her campaign against anti-Semitism amounted to ‘disloyalty’ to Mr Corbyn.
She has since endured vitriolic ‘trolling’ on local party websites, being called an ‘Israeli attack dog’, a ‘dirty little Zionist rat’ and worse.
Dr Scott-Samuel met Mr Corbyn in 2016 over what he claimed was the ‘victimisation’ of anti-Zionists’ in the party, saying as much on Twitter.
He was also given a centre-stage position as Mr Corbyn took to the stage at last year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool – during which Ms Berger needed an armed guard to protect her against militant Corbynistas.
Mr Corbyn was photographed warmly greeting Dr Scott-Samuel as he stepped on to the podium.
A friend of Ms Berger’s said: ‘Luciana could justifiably fear that the entire party apparatus from London to Liverpool is sinisterly acting in concert to prevent her stamping out this cancer. It would be bad enough at any time, let alone when she is about to give birth’.
Ms Berger issued a statement this weekend which appeared to put Mr Corbyn on a final warning to sort out the anti-Semitism problem – or face a split in his party.
She said: ‘I have been deeply disturbed by the lack of response from the leadership to the anti-Semitism that stains our Party. I and my colleagues have been calling on the leadership for months to put in place proper measures to tackle this issue.
‘The sad, frustrating, deeply disappointing fact is that I do not believe the leadership is properly dealing with anti-Semitism. I believe we have a serious problem. I will not be a bystander to anti-Semitism.
Ms Berger issued a statement this weekend which appeared to put Mr Corbyn on a final warning to sort out the anti-Semitism problem – or face a split in his party
'I will continue, unapologetically and with the support of the vast majority, to call out anti-Semitism wherever it rears its ugly head’.
This week’s extracts from Mr Bower’s book, Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot For Power, trace Mr Corbyn’s anti-Zionist beliefs to his first job as a researcher for the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers.
The author says that Mr Corbyn’s campaigns on behalf of low-paid workers against ‘exploitative Jewish employers’ convinced him of ‘the malign collective power of Jews’.
Mr Bower adds: ‘The truth is that Corbyn’s antagonism towards Zionism is one of the most consistent – and toxic – lines of his career. To him, Jews aren’t victims of racism and oppression but rather racist oppressors themselves.
‘For years, he’d noisily voice his outrage at the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza... never drawing a distinction between the terms Jew and Zionist which were interchangeable to many on the Left.’
The author says that Mr Corbyn’s campaigns on behalf of low-paid workers against ‘exploitative Jewish employers’ convinced him of ‘the malign collective power of Jews’
The author also describes the mood of ‘flippant disdain’ in Mr Corbyn’s office before a crisis summit with the Board of Deputies of British Jews over anti-Semitism, and the complaint from Jonathan Arkush, its president, that Mr Corbyn associated with people who were ‘blatantly racist’.
The Mail on Sunday has also established that Corbyn’s own constituency chair has been spreading material condemning ‘the Israel lobby’ for its ‘undue influence on British politics’.
Alison McGarry claims that the ‘baseless smears’ of the anti-Semitism scandal have been ‘orchestrated’ by the Israel’s UK Embassy, and has called for ambassador Mark Regev to be removed, claiming he is a ‘hardcore Zionist’.
Ms McGarry has also campaigned against the expulsion of Labour member Jackie Walker, who is awaiting a judgment for saying that Jews were the ‘chief financiers of the slave trade’.
Ms McGarry has shared a number of petitions on the issue, including one last year which said that the ‘baseless smears and slurs against Jeremy Corbyn have been relentlessly orchestrated by the Israeli Embassy and the Labour Friends of Israel’ and described Israel supporters as a ‘dangerous fifth column’.
The Commons debate on anti-Semitism has been timed by the Government to coincide with a resurgence of anger among Labour MPs over the party’s failure to crack down on the problem.
The Mail on Sunday has also established that Corbyn’s own constituency chair has been spreading material condemning ‘the Israel lobby’ for its ‘undue influence on British politics’
Basetlaw MP John Mann, a leading campaigner against anti-Semitism, told this newspaper: ‘We expect Labour members to be above reproach when it comes to racist discrimination and abuse. [But] it’s fairly clear that Jew-haters are among us and the lack of action is undoubtedly emboldening them.
‘The sooner we make our members clear that anti-Semitism is not and will never be tolerated, the sooner we can start becoming the antidote to anti-Semitism on the Left, rather than the culture from which it can grow.’
Jonathan Goldstein, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: ‘Labour’s leadership is now increasingly seen to hold views at odds with British values’.
Ms Berger refused to comment last night on Mr Corbyn’s meetings with Dr Scott-Samuel, who has made regular appearances on the Richie Allen Show, an online current affairs show aired on conspiracy theorist David Icke’s website.
There he has aired his controversial views – including blaming the 9/11 terror attacks on the UK, America and Israel and saying the wealthy Jewish Rothschild family were ‘behind a lot of the neo-liberal influence’ in the UK.
Dr Scott-Samuel has defended his decision to approve a no-confidence motion against Ms Berger on the grounds that he is ‘himself Jewish’ adding that any suggestion the local party executive is ‘party to bullying and anti-Semitism is a slanderous accusation’.
Last night he said: ‘I’m hurt and offended by the allegations in the media that I am anti-Semitic or a conspiracy theorist.’
Labour said: ‘We take all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms. All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken’.
'Blatantly anti-Semitic': That's what Britain’s most senior Jews called Team Corbyn. How did it come to this? In the final part of his explosive book unmasking the real Corbyn, TOM BOWER traces the roots of his anti Zionism to his very first job
By Tom Bower
With no degree and two rotten A-levels, when it came to hunting for his first real job, Corbyn aimed low
With no degree and two rotten A-levels, when it came to hunting for his first real job, Corbyn aimed low.
An ad placed by the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers for an assistant in its research department attracted just one reply – Corbyn’s – and he got the job.
Intriguingly, given the torrent of anti-Semitism claims the Labour leader faces today, this was the post that gave him his first encounter with Jews.
Corbyn’s boss was Alec Smith, who in 1973 was negotiating with employers at the Retail Bespoke Tailoring Wages Council.
Working under Smith was Mick Mindel, a Jewish communist who articulated his members’ passionate support for Israel.
Most of their employers were also Left-wing Jews – like Mindel, they looked to communism to abolish injustice and prejudice, including anti-Semitism.
Corbyn has boasted of how, although only an assistant in the research department, he personally challenged employers to recover members’ unpaid wages after their bosses ‘had mysteriously gone bankrupt just before Christmas, owing their workers a lot of wages’.
‘Scumbags, actually. Crooks’ was how Corbyn described the bosses. ‘My job was to try and chase these people through Companies House and so on.’
According to Corbyn, he examined the companies’ accounts in order to verify phoney bankruptcies.
But that notion is contradicted by his old boss, Alec Smith, and also by the union’s well catalogued records, which do not reveal any issues about ‘unscrupulous employers’, or refer to any member complaining about being unpaid.
Smith is certain that Corbyn ‘never had any contact with our members. He just sat in at meetings passing me information’.
Painted by American artist Kalen Ockerman, it portrayed Jewish financiers playing Monopoly on a board supported on the naked backs of the world’s oppressed – mostly blacks
Corbyn, not for the first time reshaping the truth to improve his self-image, conjured a tale of a brave personal fight against exploitative Jewish employers of sweatshop labour. Parochialism and fantasy led to him forming his views about the malign collective power of Jews.
Thirty years later he boasted how, at the end of one Wages Council meeting, a Jewish tailor had offered to make him a suit if he provided the cloth. Corbyn had spurned the offer. ‘Imagine trying to bribe a union official,’ he laughed.
Immersed in an alien world, the young Corbyn had no time for those seeking self-improvement – to fulfil the dream of moving from East End slums to North London’s suburbs.
Since he disdained materialism, culture and anything spiritual, he was an empty vessel, uneasy with a race complicated by its history of survival over 2,000 years of persecution.
Jews in London were the victims of discrimination by all classes, including the working class – a truth that did not quite fit Corbyn’s Marxist theory of history.
Few Labour MPs were more troubled by Jeremy Corbyn than Louise Ellman, elected in 1997 for Liverpool Riverside. A soft-spoken mother-of-two, she had joined the party at 18.
For years, it was seldom mentioned that Ellman was Jewish: at Westminster and in her constituency, her religion was irrelevant. That changed after Corbyn’s election in September 2015.
The membership of her constituency soared from 500 to 2,700, and at meetings the Corbynistas harangued her about Israel and Zionism.
Older party members were disgusted by the anti-Semitic abuse. ‘It’s pretty nasty,’ Ellman reported to party headquarters in London.
She blamed the revived Militant faction, now reincarnated as Momentum, for plotting to deselect her. No one at headquarters acknowledged her concern, which did not surprise her.
Ellman’s predicament had begun soon after the creation of the Stop The War Coalition in 2001. She was among the first to protest against its anti-Semitism.
The criticism of Israel and Zionism was couched in language markedly similar to the myths parroted over the previous 2,000 years about Jewish wealth dominating the world.
Corbyn was heard by a member of his staff mocking Ellman as ‘the Honourable Member for Tel Aviv’ – an allegation he later denied
Corbyn had been seen at Stop The War’s annual Al-Quds (the Arab name for Jerusalem) event opposing Israel’s existence, mingling among Palestinians distributing magazines featuring cartoons portraying Jews with large noses pulling the strings of puppet politicians, media moguls and bankers.
Just before Christmas 2003, Ellman addressed an empty Commons about the ‘rising tide of anti-Semitism’.
She named the leaders of the Muslim Association of Britain, all of
