Labour brushed off complaint over Corbyn's backing for anti-Semitic painting

The Labour Party disregarded a formal complaint made about Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged endorsement of an anti-Semitic painting in a Facebook post in 2012, the Guardian has reported.

Labour supporter Sam Shemtob repeatedly raised concerns about Corbyn’s 2012 Facebook post in support of the Los Angeles-based street artist Mear One, over a mural which was removed over complaints it was anti-Semitic.

After the party ignored Shemtob’s social media comments about Corbyn’s post he lodged a formal complaint in February 2017.

The mural was scrubbed off a wall in London’s East End in 2012 following complaints. The mural featured a number of anti-Semitic tropes.

Shemtob accused Corbyn of endorsing Nazi-style propaganda in an email to the party.

Shemtob’s complaint, which came after Labour councillor John Clarke shared a tweet by a neo-Nazi, claimed Corbyn’s 2012 Facebook comment created a climate for anti-Semitism to flourish.

“Given the similarity between the mural Mr Corbyn endorsed and Mr Clarke’s tweet... I think it is hard to ignore the link, nor the possibility that Mr Corbyn’s post inadvertently endorsed this sort of thinking in his party,” the complaint said.

After screenshots of the Facebook post emerged last week, Labour MP Luciana Berger raised the issue with Corbyn's office, stating on Friday that she was not satisfied by the statement issued by Labour's press office. 

Labour said it took complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously, adding that the issue could not be discussed “due to data protection issues”.

However, a year later Shemtob still hadn’t heard more on the issue. It is understood that Labour decided not to investigate Shemtob’s complaint, as it had decided Corbyn’s post did not breach the party’s rules.

The Labour leader conceded that he was wrong to support an artist whose work was “offensive”. A statement released by the Labour party on Friday said: “In 2012 Jeremy was responding to concerns about the removal of public art on the grounds of freedom of speech.

“However, the mural was offensive, and used anti-Semitic imagery, which has no place in our society, and it is right that it was removed.”

The mural pictured a number of apparently Jewish bankers playing Monopoly while resting on the naked backs of workers.

In a second statement, Corbyn said that defending freedom of speech can never be used as a justification for anti-Semitism, adding that “this is a view I’ve always held.

“I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on, the contents of which are deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic.”

In an email to the Guardian, Shemtob said: “As a politician with aspirations to be prime minister, there’s an onus to be careful and responsive. I accepted that the party were looking into it, though it was was a little odd that they weren’t planning on responding in a material way on its progress.

“This could be a good opportunity now to address these issues positively, for those in charge to review their processes and put measures in place that deliver on their commitments.”