The seven MPs who quit the Labour Party lined up yesterday to deliver a devastating verdict on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
One by one, they set out an extraordinary charge sheet against Mr Corbyn’s stewardship, accusing him of turning Labour into an ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’ and ‘racist’ party.
Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP threatened with deselection by hard-Left activists, said she was ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ to remain in a party riven with ‘bullying, bigotry and intimidation’.
At the launch of their ‘Independent Group’, the MPs tore into Labour’s leadership, warning that the party had been ‘hijacked’.
Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP threatened with deselection by hard-Left activists, said she was ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ to remain in a party riven with ‘bullying, bigotry and intimidation’
Ann Coffey: 'Any criticism of the leadership is responded to with abuse and accusations of treachery. Anti-Semitism is rife and tolerated'
Angela Smith: 'Most people are like my family. They do not want to be patronised by Left-wing intellectuals who think that being poor and working-class is a state of grace'
Mike Gapes, a Labour MP for 27 years, said he was ‘sickened’ that the party he joined was now ‘racist’. Others blamed their decision to quit on the party’s failure to oppose Brexit and support a second referendum.
Chris Leslie, former shadow chancellor, said he had left because Labour had been ‘hijacked by the machine politics of the hard Left’.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party last night, the seven departing MPs received an ovation in recognition of their service to the party.
Labour chairman Ian Lavery – a close ally of Mr Corbyn – faced a frosty reception when he rejected Miss Berger’s suggestion the party was ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’.
![Chris Leslie: '[Corbyn prefers] to believe states hostile to our country rather than … our security services. [This is] rooted in the leadership’s obsession with a narrow, outdated ideology'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/18/22/9973926-0-image-m-43_1550527992229.jpg)
Chris Leslie: '[Corbyn prefers] to believe states hostile to our country rather than … our security services. [This is] rooted in the leadership’s obsession with a narrow, outdated ideology'
![Chuka Umunna: 'In [the] light of these past three years, I do not support the Labour leader taking the office of prime minister. Nor do I have confidence in him and his team to ... safeguard our national security'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/18/22/9973926-0-image-m-45_1550528021555.jpg)
Chuka Umunna: 'In [the] light of these past three years, I do not support the Labour leader taking the office of prime minister. Nor do I have confidence in him and his team to ... safeguard our national security'
Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth broke down in tears as she accused the leadership of not doing enough to tackle the problem. Louise Ellman, another Jewish MP, was applauded when she said that unless Labour changes ‘we are not fit to govern’.
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said Miss Berger’s departure proved the party had been too slow to admit it had a problem with racial hatred of Jews.
Miss Berger and the six other members of the Independent Group quit just days after she was threatened with a vote of no confidence by her local party.
The Liverpool Wavertree MP has been bombarded with
