Manchester “anti-Semitism” protest
Blairites and Tories share platform calling for Corbyn’s removal
By
Robert Stevens
22 September 2018
Last Sunday’s rally in Manchester, supposedly a “Jewish community” protest against anti-Semitism, was a gathering of the usual suspects leading the campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. It was noteworthy in that Blairite MPs shared a platform with Conservative MPs and openly discussed how best to split the Labour Party.
Speaking on a stage with a huge British flag as a backdrop was Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who described herself as an “accepted figure of the British establishment,” and other Labourites Dame Louise Ellman, Lucy Powell, James Frith and Kate Green. They spoke alongside Ivan Lewis MP, who recently resigned from the Labour Party, and Tory MPs Chris Green and Mary Robinson, with the Conservative government sending a message of support from Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
The demonstration was dutifully portrayed by the media as representing the views of the majority of Jews in the UK and described by the Jerusalem Post as having a “huge turnout.” In reality attendance at a national demo backed by 32 Jewish organisations did not exceed a thousand, despite the Greater Manchester area being home to the largest Jewish population outside of London.
No slander against Corbyn, his supporters and ordinary Labour members was too vile.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, accused Corbyn of “picking a fight with the Jews. People used to criticise Jeremy Corbyn for his apathy. But now who can deny his own complicity.”
Hodge, who helped initiate the failed 2016 coup against Corbyn and who screamed in his face in Parliament that he was a “f—ing…