Anti-Semitism is not a priority in the Labour Party

It is the gripe of every end-of-the-bar bigot you meet. ‘Look, I’m not saying there isn’t any racism but there can’t be as much as they claim. They exaggerate it. This isn’t me saying this, by the way. I know loads of black lads who say the same. They’re just milking it. It stands to reason.’

Place that paragraph before almost any Labour member and they would know exactly what they were looking at. They would call it textbook racism. The throat-clearing at the outset. The downplaying of the problem. The some-of-my-best-strawmen-are-black rhetorical device. Whatever the intent (though we can probably guess), the overall effect is to delegitimise critics of racism, to call them liars and fabricators, to make it more difficult for them to speak up in future. Most Labour members would tell you the speaker was either a racist or at the very least an apologist for racism. This kind of thing is unacceptable in the Labour Party.

Now, place the following paragraph,