UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn
UK Labour Party leader Jeremy CorbynReuters

The British Labour party has secretly suspended 50 of its members over anti-Semitic and racist comments in recent months, senior sources revealed to the Telegraph on Monday night.

The report came hours after it was reported that the party had suspended three members in one day over anti-Semitic comments, but the source said the party’s compliance unit has actually suspended 50 members in the past two months.

They include up to 20 members within the past two weeks alone, with the unit struggling to cope because it does not have necessary resources, according to the Telegraph.

While more than 50 have been suspended, only 13 have been publicly named since October after being suspended. 

"There are just six people in the compliance unit with one more joining after the EU referendum and frankly, it's nowhere near enough,” the source told the newspaper, adding, "They can't cope with the number of new members that have joined since Jeremy became leader, they need more resources."

Labour has come under fire due to repeated anti-Semitic remarks by its members. Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has come under fire for calling Hamas and Hezbollah his "friends", and on Sunday he outright refused to condemn those two terrorist organizations despite being urged to do so by local Jewish groups.

Earlier on Monday it was revealed that Corbyn had glorified Fatah arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in Israel, and compared him to Nelson Mandela.

Last week two other Labour Party members were suspended for anti-Semitic comments. Bradford West MP Naz Shah, who had called for the removal of Jews from Israel, was suspended by the party’s General Secretary despite objections from Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn.

Ken Livingstone, a senior party official and former mayor of London, was also suspended after defending Shah and claiming that that Hitler “supported Zionism."

John Woodcock, a Labour MP and critic of Corbyn, said Monday night, "The Labour  party should make public the number of incidents it has had reported  in recent years to the present, we mustn't allow any impression that  we are seeking to minimize this very serious issue or sweep it under  the carpet."