Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy CorbynReuters

British Labour MP John Mann announced on Saturday night that he will resign from Parliament in protest at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle rampant anti-Semitism within the party, The Jewish Chronicle reported.

Mann - MP for Bassetlaw since 2001 - has opted take up a new full-time role as the government's anti-Semitism tsar.

Speaking to the JC about the decision, made only weeks before a likely General Election, he confirmed, "I'm not prepared to stand as an MP with Corbyn as leader."

Mann added that he had written to Corbyn explaining his decision to stand down and in a hard-hitting letter repeated his call for the Labour leader to resign.

"I have told him to resign for the good of the country and for the good of the Labour Party," he told the JC.

The 59-year-old politician, whose constituency had a 5,000 Labour majority in 2017, said there was a problem with antis-Semitism in other political parties but that Corbyn's failure to tackle it within Labour had left "huge consequences".

"When Corbyn goes the problem doesn't go with Corbyn. But his failure to lead is the big problem - as is the problem of anti-Semitism on the left,” explained Mann.

"Corbyn is an enabler. His unwillingness to undo the damage he has done has had huge consequences. He's not just an enabler - he's the enabler in this country,” Mann continued.

"His refusal to sort things out - and the things he's done and said in the past - gives an open license to it," he added.

Mann’s announcement makes him the latest in a series of Labour members who have resigned from the party due to the anti-Semitism within its ranks.

The party has suspended dozens of members in recent years over their anti-Semitic statements.

Corbyn himself has been accused of holding anti-Semitic views by senior UK Jewish leaders.

The Labour leader has also been criticized for calling Hamas and Hezbollah his "friends" and for outright refusing to condemn those two terrorist organizations despite being urged to do so by local Jewish groups.

Much of the criticism against Corbyn is over his playing down the anti-Semitism in his party and alienating Jews, but he insists he is not an anti-Semite and claims he has opposed it his entire life.

Recently, however, Corbyn acknowledged that his party has an anti-Semitism problem as Labour launched an educational webpage that hopes to help drive anti-Semitism out of the party.

He later proposed changes to the party’s complaints system to speed up the expulsion of members over anti-Semitism.