Polly Toynbee says “a party can’t be a little bit racist. The damning findings [of the Equality and Human Rights Commission] had to be swallowed whole”, as justification of the ban on Jeremy Corbyn from running as a Labour candidate (Starmer is right to stop Corbyn standing for Labour at the next election – but he mustn’t purge dissent, 15 February).
It sounds impressive, but surely the logic here is flawed. A party, like a person, can be more or less racist. Indeed, most people are probably “a little bit racist”, as implicit association tests consistently show. And a party with an ideology declaring racial superiority, or even a party that has no such explicit ideology, but which consistently discriminates against one group, can be said to be more racist than one where racist attitudes are held by a fringe minority.
I am a Jewish member of the Labour party, and I am well aware of some egregious examples of antisemitism that occurred during the Corbyn years, and before. I feel real distress for anybody who suffered abuse linked to such attitudes. But it surely does not make me antisemitic to point out that my own experience in Labour has been one of friendship and common purpose, and that the image of the party I saw in much of the media was not one that I recognised. Indeed, among my Jewish friends on the left of Labour, many of whom were wholehearted supporters of Corbyn, there is real fear now that they will be branded as racists. My understanding is that it is now much more likely for a Jewish person to be disciplined for antisemitism than for a non-Jew.
I hope to see the return of a Labour government at the next election, but I am sickened by the way that the issue of antisemitism has been used as a factional weapon, as Martin Forde showed in his report commissioned by the party. Antisemitism and other forms of racism must be dealt with, but the party must not use this issue as part of a fight against any particular section.
Dr Ian Saville
London
