‘Employed by the Tories’: John McDonnell lashes out after ex-Labour MPs urged people to vote Conservative to stop Corbyn

Labour embroiled in antisemitism row as Jewish Chronicle issues appeal to non-Jews not to back Corbyn

Labour’s general election campaign suffered a double blow today as two of the party’s former MPs and one of the country’s leading Jewish newspapers issued appeals to voters to stop Jeremy Corbyn getting to 10 Downing Street.

Ian Austin and John Woodcock both called on Labour supporters to back Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in order to block Corbyn from becoming prime minister.

Mr Austin – a former minister and adviser to Gordon Brown – said that the Labour leader was “completely unfit” to run the country, citing antisemitism allegations that he claimed had “poisoned” the party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

And Mr Woodcock said the Labour leader should not be allowed to “get his hands on the levers of national security and defence”.

The warnings from the two ex-MPs – who each quit Labour to go independent after clashing with Corbyn – came just hours after the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, shook Labour’s general election campaign by announcing he was quitting frontline politics at the 12 December election.

And they followed the publication of the Jewish Chronicle‘s front-page appeal to non-Jewish voters not to back a man regarded as an antisemite by 87 per cent of British Jews in a recent poll.

“If this man is chosen as our next prime minister, the message will be stark: that our dismay that he could ever be elevated to a prominent role in British politics, and our fears of where that will lead, are irrelevant,” said the Chronicle’s editorial. “We will have to conclude that those fears and dismay count for nothing.

“But we think you do care. We believe that the overwhelming majority of British people abhor racism.We ask only that, when you cast your vote,you act on that.”

In an emotional interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Austin announced he was standing down as an MP at the election.

And he said: “The country faces a big choice. There are only two people who can be prime minister on 13 December: Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson and I think Jeremy Corbyn is completely unfit to lead our country, completely unfit to lead the Labour Party.”

Mr Austin, whose father was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, resigned from Labour in February after 14 years as its MP for Dudley North, hitting out at Mr Corbyn for “creating a culture of extremism and intolerance”.

“It’s really come to something when I tell decent, traditional, patriotic Labour voters that they should be voting for Boris Johnson at this election,” he told Today. “I can’t believe it’s come to this, but that’s where we are.”

Mr Austin was joined by Mr Woodcock for the launch of a poster for the Mainstream movement, which read: “Jeremy Corbyn: A disgrace to his party, a disgrace to this country.”

Mr Woodcock, who is standing down at the 12 December election after nine years as MP for Barrow and Furness, said: “There are one of two people who are going to be prime minister after an election. It is Boris Johnson or it is Jeremy Corbyn.

“We pleaded with our friends in the Labour Party to face up to this choice, not to leave it until too late… but we have arrived in a campaign where one of two people are going to be prime minister.

“The choice to keep Jeremy Corbyn away from Downing Street, to stop him getting his hands on the levers of national security and defence has to be to vote Conservative in this election and that’s what I’ll be doing as well.”

John McDonnell lashed out verbally at Mr Austin following a speech in Liverpool, branding him a Conservative employee because of his role as the government’s trade envoy to Israel.

“He’s now employed by the Tories,” said the shadow chancellor to loud applause from Labour activists.

“What else do you expect him to do in an election campaign? When you’re employed by the Tories, you speak on behalf of the Tories. That’s what this was about this morning.”

John McDonnell said a Final Say Brexit referendum could yet come before a general election – against his leader’s wishes (PA)

Mr Austin branded Mr McDonnell’s comment a “lie” and demanded an apology.

“This is not true. It is a complete lie,” he said. “I was appointed an unpaid trade envoy in July, along with 27 other MPs and peers from different parties, including Labour, to promote UK trade and exports. John should withdraw this lie and apologise.”

Mr Austin was appointed to the unpaid and voluntary trade envoy role by Theresa May. The post is an appointment of the prime minister and envoys would remain in post after a change in government. Labour MP Rushanara Ali is currently the PM’s trade envoy to Bangladesh.

Mr Woodcock was named the government’s special envoy for countering far-right violent extremism earlier this week.

Responding to the Chronicle editorial, Mr McDonnell added: “On the issue of what’s happened in the Jewish media over the last week or so, of course we are saddened by it.

“But we are doing everything they asked of us to address this issue. Yes, it was a tiny number – less than a tenth of 1 per cent of our membership – but it doesn’t matter. One antisemite is too many in our movement.”

Mr McDonnell said Labour had done “everything we can” to deal with antisemitism allegations and had been “rapid and, at times, ruthless” in imposing new procedures for disciplinary action

Responding to Mr Austin’s comments, Conservative minister Rishi Sunak said: “This is a truly devastating indictment of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

“Ian Austin has been a Labour MP for 14 years so he knows Corbyn better than most. He says that a vote for Corbyn’s Labour would put businesses and jobs at risk, that Corbyn’s economic policies would make our country worse and that his ideas on Brexit are a complete fantasy.

“This comes straight after the party’s second most powerful person quit because he could no longer support Corbyn, in another hammer blow to his authority. Corbyn’s MPs are saying what we all know – he is unfit to be prime minister.”