Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle antisemitism makes him unfit to be prime minister, the Chief Rabbi has said in an unprecedented attack on the Labour leader.
Ephraim Mirvis said he had decided to break with convention and intervene in politics ahead of the general election because “the very soul of our nation is at stake”.
In an article for The Times, he rejected Labour’s claims that the party were dealing with the problem as “a mendacious fiction”.
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And he claimed that the “new poison” of antisemitism that had taken root in the party was “sanctioned from the top”.
“Many members of the Jewish community can hardly believe that this is the same party that they called their political home for more than a century,” he wrote. “It can no longer claim to be the party of equality and anti-racism.
“How far is too far? How complicit in prejudice would a leader of Her Majesty’s opposition have to be to be considered unfit for office?
“Would associations with those who have incited hatred against Jews be enough? Would describing as ‘friends’ those who endorse the murder of Jews be enough? It seems not.”
The Chief Rabbi said that the overwhelming majority of British Jews were “gripped by anxiety” ahead of the general election on 12 December.
He wrote: “The question I am now most frequently asked is: What will become of Jews and Judaism in Britain if the Labour Party forms the next government?
“The Jewish community has watched with incredulity as supporters of the Labour leadership have hounded parliamentarians, members and even staff out of the party for challenging anti-Jewish racism. Even as they received threats, the response of the Labour leadership was utterly inadequate.”
The Chief Rabbi asked the public to “vote with their conscience”. He added: “It is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I simply pose the question: What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country?”
Luciana Berger, who quit Labour in February over the party’s alleged anti-Semitic prejudice and is standing as a Liberal Democrat in the election, called it an “unprecedented and devastating intervention”.
Labour issued a statement defending Jeremy Corbyn as “a lifelong campaigner against antisemitism” who has ”made absolutely clear it has no place in our party and society and that no one who engages in it does so in his name.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
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