Margaret Hodge

“Antisemitism in the UK Labour Party”

“Told by leading Government politicians that they pose an "existential threat" to the West's way of life, that they are part of a "hurricane" of mass migration, that MPs feel "besieged by asylum seekers", and that asylum seekers are "invading" Britain.We should reflect on what we say and what we do today before we exercise any moral entitlement to condemn the atrocities of the past.The language we use today matters.”

“We as a nation should understand that how we treat those who escape from persecution and genocide is central to our reputation as a country that boasts a humanitarian approach to genocide and the Holocaust.”

“On Saturday, the worst nightmares of the people of Kfar Aza were realised.A barrage of rockets sent men, women and children into their safe rooms. Then hundreds of Hamas terrorists breached the security barrier. A group of them, fully armed, went from house to house in Kfar Aza, searching for Jews to slaughter.People were burned alive in their homes and cars. Babies and young children were killed and mutilated. Others were dragged into Gaza as hostages.These heinous crimes are unspeakable, and yet we must speak them. The world must know what happened to the people of Kfar Aza.”

“Kishinev. Babi Yar. Munich. The sites of Jewish massacres throughout history. Now there is another place that will for ever be associated with the slaughter of innocent Jews: Kfar Aza.Kibbutz Kfar Aza was home to about 800 people and was established in 1951 by Jewish refugees from Morocco and Egypt (where I was born and from which my family escaped in 1949). Like so many kibbutzim, its founders were idealists, living communally on a model with socialist foundations. Its name – literally meaning "Gaza Village" – reflects its location, just over three miles from the city of Gaza.”

“[Is Labour never having a female leader "shameful"?] Yes. [...] Oh, it’s horrible. There’s still sexism, which is why you can never take your foot off the accelerator.”

“[After the 2019 general election] Had Corbyn won then, I think things would have been different; I couldn't have stayed in the party.”

“It was only because of his actions and his words that I came to the decision in 2018; this man was an antisemite and a racist.”

“[T]he government proposes to outsource the registration of companies to the professionals working in this space, like accountants, lawyers and company service providers. While most professionals act with integrity, it is people in these very jobs who have been responsible for creating the web of opaque corporate structures that obscure illicit financial flows. So why does the government refuse to put in place robust systems to regulate, check and discipline the professionals involved so that the few bad apples can be eliminated?”

“The terrible truth is that [Mr Corbyn] constantly makes himself the centre of the argument.What we need to root out is anti-Semitism, and for as long as he is one of the individuals who refuses to accept the extent of anti-Semitism in the party, who constantly says that people like me have been politically motivated and are attacking him personally instead of attacking the anti-Semitism that he expressly tolerates, and has allowed to spread right through the party - that's really the problem.”

“Within the Labour Party, we now have a culture which sadly has become embedded, which was allowed to drift from the fringes of the Labour Party into the heart of the party, which enables people to express anti-Semitism.Probably my talking to you this morning will fill my Twitter with abusive tweets which are basically anti-Semitic.”

“At this moment of grave danger, we simply cannot allow the party to flounder, become utterly irrelevant to the political debate and disintegrate into a second-rate pressure group. Make no mistake — unless we listen to our voters, our party faces political oblivion.”

“What has happened in Barking and Dagenham is the most rapid transformation of a community we have ever witnessed.Nowhere else has changed so fast. When I arrived in 1994, it was a predominantly white, working class area. Now, go through the middle of Barking and you could be in Camden or Brixton. That is the key thing that has created the environment the BNP has sought to exploit. ["Mrs Hodge claimed the anger is not down to racism"] It is a fear of change. It is gobsmacking change.”

“They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry [...] When I knock on doors I say to people, 'are you tempted to vote BNP?' and many, many, many - eight out of 10 of the white families - say 'yes'. That's something we have never seen before, in all my years. Even when people voted BNP, they used to be ashamed to vote BNP. Now they are not.”