Commenting on the Labour Party NEC vote to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust Karen Pollock MBE said:
“The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition and all of its examples should have been accepted in full today, no amends, no caveats. We all believe in freedom of speech and this framework does not stifle that.
“Why is it that the Labour Party feel that they are different or above anyone else when looking at this issue? 31 countries including the UK Government and the Crown Prosecution Service have adopted it.
"More worrying is that it now appears that the Labour leader was against adopting these examples in full and only withdrew his personal statement when he was about to be overruled.
"Sadly, the fact is that incidents of antisemitism have been going on for a long time now in the Labour Party and they are not being dealt with appropriately. We need political leaders to lead by example. There should be a clear rejection of antisemitism, booting out any racists in the Party membership and they ought to stop punishing those who call it out! We need action not just words.”