General election 2019: Welsh Jewish group backs chief rabbi over Labour attack

The chairman of a south Wales Jewish group has backed the chief rabbi in his attack on the Labour party.

Laurence Kahn said Labour was once the natural home for the Jewish community but claimed the leadership team had allowed anti-Semitism to "flourish".

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said "a new poison - sanctioned from the very top - has taken root" in the party.

Jeremy Corbyn responded saying the party had taken "rapid and effective" action against anti-Semitism.

Responding to the chief rabbi's comments, Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Mark Drakeford said: "As I have said many times... anti-Semitism is a stain on our society and I am completely clear it has no place in our party or in Wales."

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Mr Kahn, chairman of the South Wales Jewish Representative Council, told BBC Wales: "The Labour Party was at one time the natural home for the Jewish community.

"But Jeremy Corbyn and his team have expelled the Jews by allowing anti-Semitism to flourish and spread throughout the Labour party and supporting Jew-baiters.

"We support the chief rabbi in his statement condemning Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party and thank him for his courage and support."

Labour has been asked to respond to Mr Kahn's comments.

Ephraim Mirvis urged people to vote "with their conscience"

Allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour have dogged the party for three years, leading to an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Prominent Jewish Labour politicians, including Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman, have quit the party after being the subject of anti-Semitic abuse on social media.

In Wales, the Labour assembly member for Cardiff Central Jenny Rathbone was criticised for making "extremely offensive" remarks about Jewish people last year.

She given a formal warning by her party, after a six-week suspension from the Labour group.

The chief rabbi, who is the spiritual leader of the United Synagogue, said Labour's claim it had investigated all cases of anti-Semitism in its ranks was a "mendacious fiction".

In an article for the Times, he asked people to "vote with their conscience" in the election.

In response, Mr Corbyn insisted there was no place for anti-Semitism within Labour and those guilty of anti-Jewish racism had been "brought to book". He urged the Jewish community to "engage" with him.

During the election campaign, Welsh Labour candidate Maria Carroll has had to explain her membership of a Facebook group offering help to party members facing anti-Semitism investigations, as well as other disciplinary matters.

Ms Carroll said she left when it took "an anti-Semitic conspiratorial direction", but screenshots suggest she was adding comments to it last October. UK Labour said it had not found any anti-Semitic comments by her.

Former Welsh Labour minister Alun Davies, assembly member for Blaenau Gwent, tweeted that Labour "urgently [needs] to respond" to the rabbi's comments and "not dismiss this as a smear or pretend that [UK Labour] does not have a serious and fundamental problem".

On the same day, the Muslim Council of Britain accused the Conservative Party of "denial, dismissal and deceit" over the issue of Islamophobia.

Mr Davies added: "The fact that two major faith groups have spoken out today tells us a lot about our politics and the nature of our political parties.

"It appears that both of our two main parties are infected by a prejudice that isn't being addressed."