The media, antisemitism, and political warfare in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, 2015-2019

Shortly after his September 2015 election as leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn identified himself as a new type of leader promising a new, 'kinder' and 'more inclusive' brand of politics. The years that followed have instead seen the Labour Party embark upon an extraordinarily divisive and vindictive series of conflicts, with the allegation that Corbyn's leadership has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for a significant rise in antisemitic discourse among party members among the most publicly contentious and contested charges. This chapter explores the media and propaganda aspects of the Labour Party's antisemitism crisis. It charts the emergence of concerns about Labour Party antisemitism as a public issue and a political battleground, both within the Labour Party and in a public sphere defined by interaction between traditional and new forms of media. It analyses the manner in which Corbyn's critics, within and outside the Labour Party, have focused on the issue of antisemitism as a public issue, as well as the ways in which the party leadership have sought to engage with and challenge those criticisms through its public and press relations policies. The chapter seeks to explain why those policies have proved to be ineffective in shaping public perceptions on the question of anti-Jewish prejudice within the 21st century Labour Party.