Ian Austin 'appalled but not surprised' by Labour anti-Semitism probe
Ian Austin said he is 'appalled but not surprised' that a criminal investigation has been launched into claims of anti-Semitic hate crimes within the Labour Party.
Scotland Yard launched the probe after being handed an internal Labour document detailing 45 cases, mainly involving messages posted by members on social media.
Labour MP Mr Austin, an outspoken critic of the rise of anti-Semitism in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, said it marked the latest example of the party's 'complete failure' to deal with the issue.
The abuse documented in the cases include an activist describing Jews as 'cancer', whuile another allegedly said a 'Zionist' MP was going to 'get a good kicking'.
Dudley North MP Mr Austin, said: "I am appalled but not surprised, to be honest.
"This is another example of the Labour party's complete failure to deal with the issue properly.
"Every Labour party member should be ashamed that it has come to this. Why would anyone listen to anything we have to say about racism when we are mired in a mess like this?"
Asked what offences were involved, the Met Police boss Cressida Dick said she could not 'go in to the specifics', but the allegations centred on 'online crime'.
She said they were not trivial and that the Met 'applies a very high bar'.
Ms Dick said it was not an investigation into the Labour Party as a whole, adding: “However, if somebody passes us material which they say amounts to a crime, we have a duty to look at that and not just dismiss it.
“We have been assessing some material which was passed to me, and we are now investigating some of that material because it appears there may have been crime committed and we are liaising immediately with the Crown Prosecution Service.
"I hope we will be able to clear that up very quickly.”
Joe Glasman, from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: “The secret internal dossier contains over eighty pages of anti-Semitic hatred by Labour party members, including numerous admissions of guilt, but the Labour party kept the dossier secret and did not even tell Jewish Labour MPs who were directly threatened within it, despite police considering threats to their safety to be so severe as to warrant special police protection.
"It is absolutely right that police officers have opened a criminal investigation, which we hope will encompass both the anti-Semitic hate crimes and the Labour party’s complicity by concealing its evidence."
A Labour spokesman said: “The Labour Party has a robust system for investigating complaints of alleged breaches of Labour party rules by its members."
