Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy CorbynReuters

A new poll commissioned by U.K. Jewish news outlet the Jewish Chronicle has found that the Labour Party and its leader Sir Keir Starmer still have an uphill battle in front of them when it comes to the party’s past and present anti-Semitism problem.

A year after Starmer promised to “purge Labour of the poison” of anti-Semitism, the poll found that the majority of the party still denies the Jew hatred within its ranks. A surprisingly large majority of party members are also still loyal to ousted leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The survey further revealed that anti-Israel sentiment is still high among party members. Half of the respondents agreed that “Israel is an apartheid state.”

Corbyn, who once called Hamas and Hezbollah his “friends,” did little to tackle a surge in anti-Semitism within the party while he was leader. In October 2020, he was suspended by Labour after saying that the level of anti-Semitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated” by his opponents, reacting to a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which found that during Corbyn’s tenure, “unlawful” harassment and discrimination occurred, according to BBC News. The report concluded that Labour’s tepid reaction to anti-Semitism complains contained “significant failings” which amounted to breaking the law.

The survey found that 70 percent of Labour members were dismissive of the problem of anti-Semitism within Labour, with nearly half believing that allegations of discrimination against Jews were “exaggerated” and a quarter believing there was never a problem at all.

A shocking 72 percent of members still support Corbyn and don’t believe he’s should be expelled from Labour.

Approximately a third of the respondents believe that Starmer is a worse leader than Corbyn. Corbyn left the leadership in 2020 after a disastrous election, the worst loss for Labour since 1935.

The poll was conducted with 1,000 Labour members.