Britain’s Left has an antisemitism problem

The political resurrection of Jeremy Corbyn should alarm all of us. His recent partnership with Zarah Sultana to launch a new left-wing party, provisionally named “Your Party,” represents far more than another fringe political movement. It signals the return of the toxic antisemitic dynamics that poisoned the Labour Party during Corbyn’s leadership, now repackaged with even less pretense of accountability.

Jeremy Corbyn has found in Zarah Sultana a willing collaborator who shares his anti-Israel extremism and antisemitism. In a recent interview with the Marxist New Left Review, Sultana went so far as to criticize Corbyn — not for his antisemitism, but for what she saw as his failure to be antisemitic enough. Her logic seems to be that any acknowledgement of Jewish concerns or recognition of antisemitism is a betrayal.

Sultana: adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism was a “capitulation”

According to Sultana, Corbyn made a “serious mistake” during his Labour leadership by “capitulating” to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

In her exact words to the New Left Review: “We have to build on the strengths of Corbynism [… ] and we also have to recognize its limitations. It capitulated to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which famously equates it with anti-Zionism”.

Her choice of language is revealing. To describe the adoption of a globally recognized definition of antisemitism as “capitulation” suggests that Jewish concerns about hatred and discrimination are merely obstacles to be overcome rather than legitimate grievances deserving respect. It also exposes her political ideology that hostility to Israel must be central to left-wing politics, apparently no matter how much damage it causes to Jewish life and safety.

Sultana’s antisemitic rhetoric went further, revealing her contempt for any accommodation of Jewish concerns: “When it came under attack from the state and the media, it should have fought back, recognizing that these are our class enemies. But instead it was frightened and far too conciliatory”. In other words, Sultana is advocating for a political approach that treats Jewish communal concerns as enemy propaganda. This conspiracy-minded thinking, where Jewish organizations raising antisemitism concerns are dismissed as hostile forces, reflects classic antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and influence. It is not only intellectually dishonest but also a direct revival of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Her subsequent declaration on X that she is “loudly and proudly an anti-Zionist” removes any ambiguity about where she stands:

The next day, she followed up with: “Anti-Zionism is not Antisemitism. The smears won’t work this time.”

The spokesperson of the Board of Deputies of British Jews gave a statement regarding Sultana’s antisemitic comments:

Calling the recognition of the IHRA definition of antisemitism a ‘capitulation’ is a grave insult. […] Labour’s real betrayal under Corbyn was unlawfully harassing and discriminating Jews. Those who seek to delegitimize and misdefine the IHRA definition in this way prove themselves to be no friend to the Jewish community and also call into question their wider commitment to anti-racism, the wellbeing of the Jewish community and social cohesion.

Sultana has consistently taken positions that place her on the far-left fringe of British politics. Her criticism of Corbyn for being insufficiently confrontational toward “the state and the media” suggests a worldview that sees mainstream institutions as inherently illegitimate — a perspective that often correlates with antisemitic conspiracy thinking about Jewish influence and power. It is a textbook example of how anti-Zionism merges seamlessly into antisemitism.

The EHRC exposed Labour’s antisemitism — Corbyn dismissed it

It is crucial to go back to 2020 when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) conducted an exhaustive investigation into Labour’s handling of antisemitism under Corbyn’s leadership, ultimately finding the party guilty of unlawful harassment and discrimination against Jewish members. The report documented 23 instances of political interference in disciplinary processes and identified serious failures in Labour’s leadership that allowed antisemitism to flourish.

But rather than acknowledge these findings, Corbyn dismissed the scale of antisemitism as “dramatically overstated for political reasons” — a response so inadequate that it led to his suspension and eventual expulsion from Labour.

Now, through Sultana’s recent comments, we learn that for her and her supporters, even acknowledging this minimum level of responsibility is too much when it comes to Jewish concerns.

Corbyn’s long record of antisemitic rhetoric

Already in 2013, Corbyn made remarks widely condemned as antisemitic. During a recorded speech from Corbyn at the “Palestinian Return Centre” in London, Corbyn said: “[Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is that they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, don’t understand English irony either”.

Former UK Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks reacted:

The recently disclosed remarks by Jeremy Corbyn are the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. It was divisive, hateful and like Powell’s speech it undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.

When he [= Jeremy Corbyn] implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-War European antisemitism.

When challenged with such facts, the evidence for which is before our eyes, first he denies, then he equivocates, then he obfuscates. This is low, dishonest and dangerous. He has legitimized the public expression of hate, and where he leads, others will follow.

Corbyn and Sultana build a party on Israel-hatred

The formation of Corbyn’s and Sultana’s new party around opposition to “the government’s actions on Gaza” (Sultana described the UK government as “an active participant in genocide“) further demonstrates how Israel-related antisemitism has become the organizing principle for this political project. The obsessive focus on Israel, combined with the rejection of internationally accepted definitions of antisemitism, creates a political space where anti-Jewish hatred can flourish under the guise of human rights activism. It is an ideological weapon to demonize the Jewish state and, by extension, Jews everywhere.

Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party had already damaged the UK’s reputation internationally, with Jewish communities worldwide watching in horror as antisemitism became normalized within a major Western political party. His political comeback, now explicitly committed to rejecting Jewish concerns about antisemitism, delivers a dangerous signal to left movements globally.

Corbyn and Sultana issue an unequivocally alarming message to all Jews in the UK: that there are no consequences for platforming antisemitic voices, no need to take Jewish community concerns seriously, and no requirement to adopt recognized standards for identifying antisemitic rhetoric. Instead, Jewish objections to antisemitism can be dismissed as political manipulation, and those who accommodate such concerns can be criticized for “capitulation”.

A warning for left politics and progressive moments

This dynamic in UK is particularly dangerous because it operates under the banner of progressive politics. Corbyn and Sultana present themselves as champions of social justice, fighting against oppression and inequality. Yet their approach to antisemitism reveals a selective commitment to these principles; one that excludes Jews from the coalition of groups deserving protection from hatred and discrimination. In their model of progressivism, Jews and Zionists are permanently written out of the definition of justice.

Corbyn and Sultana’s new political venture embodies everything that went wrong with the British left under Corbyn’s Labour leadership: denial, deflection, and a fundamental refusal to take Jewish concerns seriously. Their political comeback is not only a renewed threat to British Jews, but also a warning sign for anyone committed to building inclusive progressive movements that genuinely oppose all forms of hatred and discrimination.

After all, at least from a cynical perspective, the Corbyn-Sultana alliance offers important lessons for legitimate progressive movements worldwide. It demonstrates how anti-Israel “activism” so easily becomes a gateway to broader antisemitic thinking, creating political spaces where Jewish concerns are dismissed as illegitimate. It shows how conspiracy theories about media and power are used to evade accountability for antisemitic rhetoric and behavior. Most importantly, it reveals how movements that claim to be progressive and to champion equality and justice can, in practice, become platforms for hatred of Jews and delegitimization of the Jewish state — unless we remain vigilant against such distortions.

When progressive politics requires silencing Jewish voices and rejecting Jewish concerns about antisemitism, it ceases to be progressive at all.

Real progressivism cannot coexist with antisemitism, and no genuine movement for equality can be built on the exclusion of Jews and the demonization of Israel.

A politics that excludes Jews is not progressivism — it is antisemitism.