Britain's Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn today faced intense pressure over alleged anti-Semitism among far-leftists in his party less than a week before his leadership is tested by local elections.
Corbyn was forced to cancel a campaign trip to Wales but denied there was a crisis after senior party member and former London mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended for linking Adolf Hitler to Zionism.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson told BBC radio that the remarks about Hitler were "provocative" and "obviously caused great offence", promising "zero-tolerance" against anti-Semitism.
"We are going to deal with this," he said.
The dispute has been simmering for months -- ever since veteran socialist Corbyn was elected party leader in September.
He has been criticised in the past for referring to Lebanon's powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah as "friends" and urging dialogue with the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, as well as meeting representatives of both organisations.
In February, Labour launched an investigation into its Oxford University student branch after the chairman stepped down complaining that many members "have some kind of problem with Jews".
Last month Vicki Byrne, deputy chairwoman of a local party branch, was suspended after it was reported she had posted anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter.
Corbyn's own brother was drawn into the row earlier this month when he dismissed complaints about anti-Semitic abuse as part of an argument about Israel.
But the row exploded on Wednesday when Labour MP Naz Shah was suspended by the party pending an investigation into allegations that she shared anti-Semitic posts on social media before being elected.
Defending Shah in a series of interviews on Thursday, Livingstone also said that criticism of Israel's policies was being confused with anti-Semitism.
"When Hitler won his election in 1932 his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews," he said.
"I have been in the Labour Party for 40 years and I have never heard anyone say anything anti-Semitic.
"I have heard a lot of criticism for the state of Israel and its abuse of Palestinians, but I have never heard someone be anti-Semitic," he added.
