Jeremy Corbyn, antisemitism and increasing the Labour vote

In my discussions on Twitter, I often am often presented with two facts, about Jeremy Corbyn, one is that he increased the Labour vote when Labour leader, the other is that he is not an anti-Semite. 

This list about Corbyn was copied and pasted from someone I know on Facebook and has been posted by me before detailing the actions that he took to combat antisemitism. 

1990 - Signed a motion condemning the publication of anti-Semitic materials in the UK 

2003 - Signed a motion condemning attacks on two synagogues 

2009 - Signed a motion condemning the publication of anti-Semitic material on the internet. 

2010 - Signed a motion praising Jewish News for investigating anti-Semitism on Facebook 

2010 - Praises the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for his efforts to secure a two-state solution to the Israeli/Arab conflict. 

2012 - Condemns the BBC for cutting a Jewish made programme for the Jewish community. 

2013 - Signed a motion condemning anti-Semitism in sport. 

2014 - Signed a motion commemorating the holocaust and genocide of the Jewish people during WW2. 

2015 - Praises The London Jewish Forum for standing up to racists marches through their community. 

Yes, he has written a glowing foreword in a book that has raised concerns by the Jewish community and also praised an artist later accused of anti-Semitism over a mural.  But when it came to the mural, once pointed out, I could see why it caused offence, but until then, I saw nothing wrong with hit.

My concerns with Corbyn when it comes to anti-Semitism relate to his comments about the EHRC report but also his failure to act on the findings of the Chakrabarti Inquiry. His statement about the EHRC report writing that "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media" would have carried more weight if he had carried out the findings of the Chakrabarti Report which include the following.

Abusive references to any particular person or group based on actual or perceived physical characteristics and racial or religious tropes and stereotypes, should have no place in Labour Party discourse. These epithets includes terms such as "Zio" and "Paki."

Labour members should resist the use of Hitler, Nazi and Holocaust metaphors, distortions and comparisons in debates about Israel-Palestine in particular. 

There should be procedural rule changes to improve the party's disciplinary process and the adoption and publication of a complaints procedure. 

The appointment of a general counsel to the Labour Party to give advice on issues including disciplinary matters and to take responsibility for instructing external lawyers. 

The party should increase the ethnic diversity of its staff. 

The report rejects the idea of a lifetime membership ban from the party for anyone deemed to have used racist language, and suggests no retrospective action i.e. against comments made prior to the inquiry. 

Do I think that he is anti-Semitic, no.  But too many people, including Nick Griffin, former leader of the far-right BNP do, or did at the time, and MP's were offered support about this perceived stance.  

Next, is the increase in votes that Labour got under Corbyn.  

In 2017, the votes Labour got under Corbyn increased from to 9,347,273 in 2015 to 12,817,918.  This fell in 2019 to 10,269,051 however as many Labour voters switched to the Conservatives and the SNP. 

Over the same time, the Conservatives also increased the votes they got. They polled 11,299,609 in 2015 when they won a majority and increased this to 13,636,684 in 2017 though they had to form an agreement with the DUP to avoid a hung parliament.  In 2019, this vote increased to 13,966,454 when the Conservatives won a huge landslide victory.  

Yes, Labour has lost members now Corbyn is no longer leader, and yes, it will lose many votes from those who were on the left of the party, but as shown in 2019, elections are won by getting people to switch their votes.  Labour have to appeal to voters from other parties to win in the next election.