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Corbyn Defends Party in Latest Row Over Antisemitism: U.K. Votes

Corbyn Campaign Hit by Fresh Storm Over Antisemitism: U.K. Votes

(Bloomberg) --

Jeremy Corbyn is again embroiled in a row over antisemitism, after the U.K.’s chief rabbi suggested the Labour leader is unfit for high office and said a “new poison -- sanctioned from the very top -- has taken root” in his party. The timing could hardly be worse. Labour trails Boris Johnson’s Conservatives going into the Dec. 12 election, but appeared to have secured a poll boost on the back of plans to dramatically reshape the British economy.

In a speech in north London on Tuesday, Corbyn said antisemitism is “vile and wrong,” and pledged to protect “all places of worship” in the U.K.

Coming up:

  • U.K.’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis says Labour can “no longer claim to be the party of equality and anti-racism”
  • Corbyn defends Labour Party’s response to antisemitism cases
  • BBC interview with the Labour leader airs at 7 p.m.
  • Johnson is campaigning in Scotland, where he warned that a Labour win would see Corbyn’s party working with the SNP
  • An ICM/Reuters poll released Monday put the Conservatives on 41%, Labour on 34%, Liberal Democrats on 13% and the Brexit Party on 4%

Javid Won’t Guarantee Reaching Tax Goal (3:55 p.m.)

Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid said he can’t promise when the Conservatives will meet their ultimate target for the threshold at which workers pay national insurance.

He said that in his first budget, he would increase it to 9,500 pounds, which would save around 85 pounds per person. But as to the party’s wider goal of raising it to 12,500 pounds, he said: “At every budget we will look to see how much further we can go.”

“I can’t say to you today it will definitely be done in x years or by the end of the parliament,” he said. “We will do it as we can afford it as a country, but I am confident that we can keep making progress towards that goal at each budget.”

Javid Pledges Tory Probe into Islamophobia (3:45 p.m.)

Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid promised the Conservatives will set up an inquiry into Islamophobia in the party before the end of the year.

“We will never ever as a party tolerate anyone amongst our ranks that has any kind of prejudice towards any group of people,” Javid, who is of Muslim heritage, said in Bolton, northern England. Labour “has been contaminated with the cancer of antisemitism, and that cancer begins at the top.”

Javid contrasted accusations of Islamophobia in the Tory party with those of antisemitism in Labour, saying “no-one has ever credibly suggested it’s an issue with the leadership” of the Conservatives. When asked about an article by Boris Johnson describing women in Muslim dress as looking like “letterboxes,” he said the prime minister has given a “perfectly valid explanation.”

Muslim Council Attacks Tories Over Islamophobia (1:45 p.m.)

It’s not just Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party under fire over its record on tackling racism and prejudice. The Muslim Council of Britain -- which represents over 500 mosques and charities across the U.K. -- accused the Conservatives of approaching Islamophobia with “denial, dismissal and conceit” in a statement which welcomed the chief rabbi’s comments on Labour.

“It is abundantly clear to many Muslims that the Conservative Party tolerate Islamophobia, allow it to fester in society, and fail to put in place the measures necessary to root out this type of racism” the council said. “It is as if the Conservative Party has a blind spot for this type of racism.”

Boris Johnson was widely criticized for a 2018 newspaper column in which he said Muslim women who wear burqas look like “letter boxes.” During the Tory leadership campaign, candidates including Johnson committed to holding an inquiry into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.

Johnson Slams Corbyn’s Record on Antisemitism (1:10 p.m.)

Boris Johnson criticized what he called Jeremy Corbyn’s “failure” to tackle antisemitism in his party, and sought to draw parallels with the Labour leader’s equivocation over Brexit.

“I do think it is a very serious business when the chief rabbi speaks as he does,” Johnson said at an event in Scotland. “I’ve never known anything like it, and clearly it is a failure of leadership on the part of the Labour leader that he has not been able to stamp out this virus in the Labour Party.”

Corbyn’s failure to stem antisemitism in Labour is “cognate with a general failure of leadership that we’re seeing at this moment” on Brexit, Johnson said. “You cannot be neutral on something like this any more than you can be neutral, frankly, on antisemitism.”

Corbyn: Antisemitism Is ‘Vile and Wrong’ (1 p.m.)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded to criticism from the U.K.’s chief rabbi, which risks undermining his campaign ahead of the general election on Dec. 12.

Antisemitism is “vile and wrong,” Corbyn said in a speech in Tottenham, north London. “There is no place whatsoever for antisemitism in any shape or form or in any place whatsoever in modern Britain, and under a Labour government it will not be tolerated whatsoever. I want to make that clear.”

Corbyn said Labour has a “rapid and effective system” for handling antisemitism cases which is “constantly under review to make sure it is rapid and effective.” He also said he’s “proud” to lead what he described as a “party of diversity.”

Johnson: No Referendums Even If No Majority (12:40 p.m.)

Boris Johnson ruled out holding a second referendum on either Scottish independence or the U.K.’s European Union membership -- even if he finds himself in a minority government after the Dec. 12 general election.

“I genuinely think they would be bad for our country,” Johnson said in Fife, Scotland at the launch of the Scottish Conservative manifesto. “It’s not the way forward now. We need to honor democracy.”

The red line leaves Johnson with few options if he does find himself with the biggest party in Parliament but no outright majority. That’s because Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party all want a second referendum on Brexit, while the SNP is demanding a second vote on Scottish independence. Johnson has also alienated the Tories’ traditional allies in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, with his Brexit deal.

Labour’s Shah: Party Should Have Acted Sooner (11:30 a.m.)

Labour’s women and equalities spokeswoman Naz Shah said the party should have acted faster on instances of antisemitism and to rebuild trust with the Jewish community.

“It is not acceptable that the Jewish community does not feel that the Labour Party is its natural home,” Shah told the BBC on Tuesday. “We haven’t been as good as we could be, we need to get better even today. We could do things differently, we do need to do much better at it and that means listening and that means responding accordingly to the Jewish community.”

Jeremy Corbyn’s party launches its race and faith manifesto shortly in Tottenham, north London, and the furore over the intervention by the U.K.’s chief rabbi will inevitably dominate proceedings.

Corbyn’s Spending Blitz Wins Economists’ Backing (Earlier)

Former Bank of England policy maker Danny Blanchflower and more than 160 other economists and academics have backed the Labour Party’s election promises as the best way to help the U.K. economy.

In a letter published in the Financial Times, the economists said productivity growth has all but stagnated over the past decade and more public investment is needed, particularly into green technology aimed at energy, transport, housing, industry and farming.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plans include an extra 83 billion pounds ($108 billion) of day-to-day spending and 55 billion pounds more for investment, which amounts to about six pounds of new spending for every one pledged by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.

Corbyn Defends Party in Latest Row Over Antisemitism: U.K. Votes

Gove: Rabbi’s Labour Intervention ‘Unprecedented’ (Earlier)

Cabinet minister Michael Gove called criticism of Labour by the U.K.’s chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis “an unprecedented intervention in a general election.”

“Jeremy Corbyn has been warned about antisemitism at the heart of his party for years now,” Gove told Talk Radio on Tuesday. “The chief rabbi has confirmed that Jeremy Corbyn just hasn’t taken the action required.”

But Labour’s faith envoy Stephen Timms told the same station “steps have been taken to deal with” antisemitism in the party, and accused Gove’s Tories of ignoring its own problems with racism and prejudice.

“There have been problems of antisemitism in the Tory Party as well, as well as a very big problem of Islamophobia which the Tory party has largely ignored,” said Timms, a Labour member of Parliament.

Johnson, Corbyn Dig Up Old Attack Lines (Earlier)

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are digging up attack lines from past elections as they seek to get an edge ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

Johnson’s Conservatives on Tuesday said a Labour win would see Corbyn’s party, allied with Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party, spending next year -- and 150 million pounds ($194 million) -- holding fresh referendums on Scottish independence and the U.K.’s EU membership. That revives their 2015 warning that Labour would form a “coalition of chaos” with Sturgeon, which helped David Cameron win a surprise majority.

Labour, meanwhile, unveiled a “pledge card” for pensioners including a 10.8 billion-pound package for social care, and said the Tories couldn’t be trusted to look after the elderly. That sparks memories of the 2017 campaign when Labour branded the Tory social care plan a “dementia tax,” helping to derail Theresa May’s bid to extend her majority.

Anti-Brexit Tories Ramp Up Johnson Criticism (Earlier)

Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine urged voters to back the Liberal Democrats and accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of pursuing an “utterly disastrous” policy on Brexit.

“The real issue is what is at stake and it is the prosperity of this country, the world influence of this country, our relationship with our neighbors in Europe,” Heseltine told BBC radio on Tuesday. “I cannot vote or support people who are going to make the country poorer or less influential.”

It’s the latest example of anti-Brexit Conservatives trying to make their voices heard in the run up to the Dec. 12 vote. On Monday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s Tory predecessor in his Esher and Walton constituency in south of London said voters should back for the Liberal Democrat candidate.

“Brexit has scrambled traditional party allegiances,” Ian Taylor, who held Esher and Walton for 23 years until 2010, said on Twitter. “It is not a time for tribal party loyalties.”

Earlier:

--With assistance from Andrew Atkinson and Kitty Donaldson.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Andrew Atkinson

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