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MP quits Labour Party, saying anti-Semitism is ‘mainstream’ under Corbyn

MP Dame Louise Ellman charges that Jeremy Corbyn “has attracted the support of too many anti-Semites.”

By World Israel News Staff 

The British Labour Party suffered another blow on Wednesday, as a Jewish MP who has been a Labour member for more than half a century announced that she is quitting the party.

“I have made the truly agonizing decision to leave the Labour Party after 55 years,” tweeted MP Dame Louise Ellman.

“I can no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks Corbyn becoming Prime Minister,” she wrote, adding her official letter to the social media post. “I believe that Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to serve as our prime minister,” said the 73-year-old longtime party member.

“Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, anti-Semitism has become mainstream in the Labour Party,” Ellman added, charging that “Jewish members have been bullied, abused, and driven out.”

She was first elected to the British parliament in 1997.

“I will continue to serve the people of Liverpool Riverside as I have had the honor to do since 1997,” she tweeted.

Ellman charged that the “Labour Party is no longer a safe place for Jews and Jeremy Corbyn must bear the responsibility for that,” and warned that he cannot be allowed “to do to the country what he has done to the Labour Party,” arguing that “Jeremy Corbyn’s seeming tolerance of anti-Semitism would embolden racists, poison our public debate and damage the social cohesion of our country.”

In her letter, she wrote that she would not be joining another party and that she hoped “that under a different leadership I will be able to return to my political home.”

A Labour spokesperson responded by saying that “Jeremy Corbyn thanks Louise Ellman for her service to the Labour party over many years, adding that “Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party are fully committed to the support, defense and celebration of the Jewish community and continue to take robust action to root out anti-Semitism in the party and wider society,” reported The Guardian.

“The issue of anti-Semitism in Labour has been a major factor in the resignation of other MPs, including Ian Austin, who quit earlier this year, saying there was a ‘culture of extremism, anti-Semitism and intolerance’ in Labour,” said the British daily.

“Luciana Berger, a persistent critic of the Labour leadership, faced anti-Semitic abuse and quit in February. She has since joined the Liberal Democrats,” the paper added.

In July, the BBC aired a program in which it reported that former Labour officials “alleged they had to deal with a huge increase in anti-Semitism complaints since Corbyn became Labour leader in 2015.”

The British Jewish Chronicle news outlet reported how “far-left activists” in Ellman’s constituency had targeted her with the threat of no- confidence motions, including “one that was scheduled to be debated on Yom Kippur,” the holiest day on the Jewish calendar which was marked last week.