“Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out. Antisemites have felt comfortable and vile conspiracy theories have been propagated.A party that permits anti-Jewish racism to flourish cannot be called an anti-racist party.”

LONDON—A British Jewish Labour MP has announced this week her decision to quit the party because, she explained, her desire to repeatedly speak out in support of Israel provided a “focus for the hostility” from Labour’s antisemites who have an “obsessional hatred of the Jewish state.”

At last month’s Labour Conference, Louise Ellman, who is a veteran Labour MP from Liverpool, infuriated many on the far-left when she gave a speech at the Labour Friends Of Israel reception in which she said she “understood” why British Jews were considering leaving the country if Labour gained power.

She told daily The Times she believes that Jeremy Corbyn ‘’would be a danger to the country, a danger to the Jewish community as well.’’ She added that unacceptable anti-Semitism had been allowed to flourish under Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who she denounced as being unfit to become Prime Minister.

In her resignation letter, Ellman wrote : “Corbyn, who spent three decades on the back-benches consorting with, and never confronting, anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and terrorists — has attracted the support of too many anti-Semites.’’

“Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out. Antisemites have felt comfortable and vile conspiracy theories have been propagated,” she added. “A party that permits anti-Jewish racism to flourish cannot be called an anti-racist party.”

Earlier this year, another Jewish Labour MP, Luciana Berger, also resigned from the Labour calling it “institutionally anti-Semitic.” and joined the Liberal Democrats.

Responding to Ellman, Jeremy Corbyn declared Thursday at a meeting of European Socialist leaders in Brussels :  “I have taken the most resolute action possible of any party leader to deal with issues of anti-Semitism or racism of any form in our party.’’

“I’ve set up an inquiry into it, we’ve set up an education process and we have suspended and indeed expelled members,” he added.

“There is no place whatsoever in our society or in any other for anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or any other form of racism,” he said.