From being the natural home for Jewish voters Labour is now excoriated by community leaders for institutional racism. A former Labour Minister and party member for nearly 50 years considers the impact charges of anti-Semitism may have on the party’s election prospects

The Jewish Chronicle is the world’s oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper. It was founded in 1841, a year after The Tablet appeared. Two weeks’ ago, the The JC (as Jews affectionately call it) devoted its entire front page to an appeal to non-Jews not to vote Labour for as long as it is led by Jeremy Corbyn.

A week later, in a letter to The Guardian 24 public figures – including the novelists John le Carré, Fay Weldon and William Boyd and the actors Joanna Lumley and Simon Callow – declared that they would not vote Labour because of the party’s problem with anti-Semitism.

The accusation of anti-Semitism is made against the leadership of the Labour Party not only by its Conservative opponents but by much of the left-liberal commentariat, by former party workers and by several Labour MPs – some of whom have moved ship to the Liberal Democrats, including Luciana Berger, who is hoping to be elected a Lib-Dem MP in Finchley and Golders Green, where 20 per cent of the electorate is Jewish. More significant for Ms Berger’s chances might be that 69 per cent of the constituency voted Remain in the 2016 referendum. For Labour and anti-Brexit Tory voters, pro-European Ms Berger is an attractive option, whatever their religious background.