British Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he poses “no threat” to “any community whatsoever” despite a poll suggesting 84 per cent of people believe he is a threat to British Jews.
The Labour leader, who has faced heavy criticism over his handling of anti-Semitism within his party’s ranks, said he wished the issue had been acted on more rapidly.
The Sunday Telegraph published polling by the Campaign Against Antisemitism in which 84 per cent of respondents regarded Corbyn as posing a threat to British Jews – compared to 15 per cent who said they held such a view about Boris Johnson.
Responding to the poll in an interview on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Corbyn said: “I pose no threat to any community whatsoever in this country. I’ve spent my life fighting racism, fighting against racist attacks…
“I simply say this: there is no place anyway for anti-Semitism in our society ever.”
Asked if he thought he had done anything wrong when it came to his handling of the issue, he said: “I wished our party had acted on it more rapidly at the very beginning and dealt with it at that point and also I want to make it very clear to the Jewish community, to the Muslim community and to any other community, anyone under threat because of persecution, because of attacks on their temples, mosques, synagogues or places of worship will be very secure under a Labour government.
Read the article by Harriet Line in The Canberra Times and Channel 7.