Corbyn needs to 'set an example' on anti-Semitism says MP Stephen Kinnock
- Published
"It feels to me that our leadership at the moment is digging itself in a hole of its own making," Stephen Kinnock said
Jeremy Corbyn needs to "set an example" to halt Labour's anti-Semitism crisis, Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has said.
He said the Labour leader had to do more than apologise for appearing on a platform with a Holocaust survivor who compared Israel to Nazism.
Earlier it emerged Mr Corbyn was at a meeting in 2010 called 'The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes'.
Mr Corbyn said there were views expressed there that he did not "accept or condone".
He added: "In the past, in pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and peace in Israel/Palestine, I have on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject.
"I apologise for the concerns and anxiety that this has caused."
Meanwhile, Owen Smith - the Pontypridd MP who challenged Mr Corbyn for the leadership - said the allegations against the party were a "self-inflicted wound".
Mr Kinnock told BBC Radio Wales he thought Mr Corbyn would be "appalled and mortified", but his apology was not enough.
"It's about confirming that these things that have been said in meetings where he was present that 'Yes they were anti-semitic statements'," he told the Good Evening Wales programme.
"Once we see clearly from Jeremy that he understands and recognises that they were anti-Semitic, I think that's worth more than apologies about the hurt and harm and damage it may have caused."
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Mr Kinnock added: "He needs to set an example. It is his behaviour and his actions that give guidance to the rest of our membership.
"So it really is over to Jeremy now.
"This is an issue of his leadership and his ability to turn on this awful position that we have got ourselves into.
"I do have to say there is a very old phrase in politics: when you're in a hole, stop digging.
"And it feels to me that our leadership at the moment is digging itself in a hole of its own making.
"That needs to stop and we need to get some clarity at what happened in 2010 at this meeting, we need clarity on the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition [of anti-Semitism) adopted in full and we need the investigations into Ian Austin and Margaret Hodge to be halted."
On Twitter, Mr Smith said: "What a desperate illustration of our self-inflicted wounds that the top story on the news this morning is not Labour's condemnation of 10 years of Tory Austerity and the near collapse of Northants Council, but rather the anti-semitism swirling around our leader."
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