BICOM

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday that the Labour Party should adopt the full IHRA antisemitism definition “unanimously, unequivocally and  immediately”. Speaking to the Jewish Labour Movement annual conference,  he said the debate was “about the soul of the Labour party”.

Yesterday morning former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks was interviewed on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show and expanded on his comments from last week when he said Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was an antisemite. Sacks said he had to issue a warning and that: “Anyone who befriends Hamas and Hezbollah, anyone who uses the term Zionist, loosely, without any care,  is in danger of engulfing Britain in the kind of flames of hatred that  have reappeared throughout Europe and is massively irresponsible.” Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell urged Rabbi Sacks to meet with Jeremy Corbyn saying on the same programme “I just think he’s got it wrong”.

The  Labour Party National Executive Committee is expected to adopt the IHRA definition at a meeting tomorrow but could still amend some of the definitions. Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told the Financial Times that the full definition and examples should be adopted but Claudia Webbe, head  of the Labour Party Disputes panel told BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster programme that the IHRA definition was not  a “perfect tool” and might mean people can’t criticise Israel.

Labour MP’s are expected to adopt the full IHRA definition with all its examples in a vote on Wednesday.