After losing seats in Jewish areas, Labour admits it must 'rebuild trust' amid antisemitism scandal

Damage caused by Labour’s antisemitism scandal has been laid bare after the party lost seats to the Conservatives in areas with a strong Jewish community.

Jeremy Corbyn’s party failed to take control of Barnet in London as expected and lost Kersal in Salford where almost half the population is Jewish.

Frontbencher Andrew Gwynne admitted the results showed his party had to “rebuild trust” with the Jewish community, while a London Labour candidate said the outcome should “shame” his party.

It comes after protests outside parliament and Labour HQ against antisemitism, following accusations that Mr Corbyn has failed to deal with a growing problem in the party.

Labour went into Thursday’s local elections hoping for an historic victory that would see them take control of Barnet for the first time since the authority’s creation in 1964.

But the council’s Labour group leader accepted that the antisemitism controversy had an impact on voters in the borough with a large Jewish population.

Barry Rawlings said: “I must say that in some wards where there is a large Jewish community, it has made a difference.”

He said that most conversations he had on the campaign trail were about potholes, but added: “We want people to know antisemitism is an issue we take very seriously in the Labour Party.”

The Tories took all three seats from Labour in West Hendon and Hale wards in Barnet, with Jewish Labour candidate Adam Langleben, who lost his seat, taking to Twitter to speak out.

He said: “It was the greatest honour of my life to serve West Hendon. We must NEVER have another election like this.

“No community group should have their vote dictated by their safety. That should shame us @UKLabour.”

The Conservatives also took Kersal in Salford, which has a 41 per cent Jewish population. Winning Tory candidate Ari Leitner took the seat with a thumping 750 vote majority.

Mr Gwynne said in the morning: “It’s my job as Labour’s shadow communities secretary to help to rebuild that trust with the Jewish community, because there are so many people that do share Labour’s values, that do want to see a progressive left of centre government, supported by a progressive left of centre group of councillors at a local level.

“We’ve got a job to do and that means we have to tackle the issue of antisemitism.”

A poll for The Independent recently found almost two thirds of people believe Mr Corbyn’s party has a problem with religious discrimination.

The party has been embroiled in an ongoing furore since the leader gave his backing to an antisemitic London mural in a Facebook post, something he later retracted and apologised for.

But two Jewish groups organised a protest to highlight a series of allegations of antisemitism by Labour members, with the party facing a backlog of disciplinary cases. MPs who attended the rally then faced criticism from Mr Corbyn’s supporters; film director Ken Loach called for them to be expelled from the party.

Soon after came the resignation of Christine Shawcroft from the party’s national executive committee when it emerged she had stepped in to defend a council candidate accused of Holocaust denial. She was also head of the NEC’s dispute panel, responsible for overseeing disciplinary hearings into cases of alleged antisemitism in the party.

With the row escalating the chairman of the Israeli Labor Party wrote to Mr Corbyn, accusing him of having shown “hostility” to the Jewish community and of failing “to adequately address” antisemitism.