Jewish Labour members were “in tears” after Diane Abbott allowed a motion calling on the party to “firmly reject” accusations of institutional antisemitism to pass at a local meeting.

Patrick Moûle, a member of the Hackney North and Stoke Newington Constituency Labour Party (CLP), tweeted an image of the “utter disgrace of a motion”, which was passed by 45 votes to 35, with 14 abstentions on Thursday evening.

A number of witnesses have also claimed that Ms Abbott was present, and failed to speak out against it.

The motion read: “This CLP notes with increasing alarm the acceptance of the ‘fact’ that the Labour Party is ‘institutionally antisemitic’ by not only the media, but the right wing of the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party].

“It is distracting people’s attention away from the calamitous consequences of the Tory government’s continuing austerity and its disastrous handling of the Brexit issue as it nears the 29 March deadline.

“It is a scandal that we are allowing ourselves to be branded as a racist party. Furthermore, we call upon the NEC [National Executive Committee] to release a statement firmly rejecting the accusation that Labour is in any way ‘institutionally racist’, making it clear that Labour and its current leader have a proud record of fighting racism and will continue to do so.”

The motion also called on the NEC to “immediately implement trigger ballot procedures” in all Labour-held constituencies, “in order to allow the party membership to decide who should represent them in Parliament”.

Read more at Jewish Chronicle