Jewish Caller Tells John McDonnell He'll Leave UK If Corbyn Becomes PM

6 February 2019, 08:01 | Updated: 6 February 2019, 08:54

This is the moment a caller laid bare the fear in the Jewish community of what would happen if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister.

James in Mill Hill called the Shadow Chancellor to express his concern over what he perceives as Labour's inaction over allegations of anti-Semitism in the party.

Speaking on a phone-in with Iain Dale, Mr McDonnell insisted they will "address it and they will sort it".

But James then asked him: "You think that's what's been done so far when you have one of your own prominent Jewish MPs who has to go to your own conference with police guards.

"When you have Jews like myself who are talking to their families very seriously that if you and Jeremy become the power in this country then we will leave.

"We fear the people who follow you. It doesn't seem to be addressed."

Mr McDonnell responded: "Please don't do that. We will do everything in our power to make sure Jewish people are safe and secure."

James went on: "If you'll do everything in your power, will you turn around and say Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorists, genocidal killers who want to kill me and my family because we're Jews.

"Will you talk to Israelis you don't like the look of? Because you never have so far."

The Shadow Chancellor insisted: "There's an open door there, because we want to bring people together.

"And where people are saying 'Here's an issue of anti-Semitism in our party', wherever we find it, we've got to root it out and we will root it out.

"But what we've also said, we want to root it out in our society as well. We want to live in a society where people like you don't feel threatened in any way. We want to live in a society where people can live in peace and harmony, that's what we're about."