The Chief Rabbi is right to denounce Jeremy Corbyn — but why has it been left to him?

Jeremy Corbyn must be the first British politician in modern times to have been denounced as an anti-Semite by the Chief Rabbi in the midst of an election campaign: “A new poison — sanctioned from the top — has taken root in the Labour Party.”

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis asks a series of unanswerable questions: “How complicit in prejudice would a Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition have to be to be considered unfit for office? Would associations with those who have incited hatred against Jews be enough? Would describing as ‘friends’ those who endorse the murder of Jews be enough?” More in sorrow than in anger, he replies: “It seems not.”

The Chief Rabbi’s questions are not directed only at British Jews, but at anybody who might vote Labour: “What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country? When December 12 arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience.” Then comes a final, devastating warning: “Be in no doubt, the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

There is no way back from this for Jeremy Corbyn. Even if he were to win the election, he would be a Prime Minister without moral authority. The impending report of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, expected early in the new year, is more than likely to paint a picture of a party in the grip of rampant anti-Semitism. It is hard to see how any party leader could survive such an indictment.

However, unless all the polls are wildly inaccurate, Jeremy Corbyn is not on course for victory but rather for an historic defeat. In an article to be published here on TheArticle later this morning, the eminent pollster Peter Kellner suggests that the Conservatives could be on the verge of a landslide. A majority of 100 seats or more is no longer out of the question.

Is Kellner correct? A senior Liberal Democrat, speaking anonymously to TheArticle last night, thinks the Labour vote may indeed be collapsing. But he claims that many Labour and Tory Remainers will vote for the Lib Dems if they are confident that a Corbyn government is impossible. The Lib Dems hope to win as many as 40 Tory seats in the south of England. Given their mediocre polling numbers, this seems highly unlikely, but tactical voting could yet decapitate several senior Brexiteers, beginning with Zac Goldsmith and including Iain Duncan Smith, John Redwood and even Dominic Raab.

The long-term effect of a Corbyn collapse would be more worrying. As the strictly non-partisan leader of a vulnerable minority, Ephraim Mirvis must have thought long and hard before intervening in an election. The risk for his community is that if Labour loses Jews will be made into scapegoats, as has happened so often in their long history.

Nobody wants a British version of the “stab in the back” legend that poisoned German politics in the Weimar Republic. It was claimed by German military commanders, led by General Ludendorff, that a Jewish-led Communist conspiracy had led to the betrayal of the German army in the First World War. In reality, the Germans were defeated by the Allies on the battlefield, but it suited the generals to blame the Jews.

The Chief Rabbi has every right to denounce the Labour leadership for legitimising anti-Semitism. But non-Jews must also speak up. The Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster ought not to leave the Chief Rabbi to be the lone prophet crying in the wilderness. Justin Welby has now endorsed the warnings of Rabbi Mirvis. Vincent Nichols should follow suit.

Nor is it enough to criticise Labour’s anti-Semitism. Many people may feel that this is more socially acceptable than admitting that they are worried that Corbyn will impose crippling taxes and that the economy will tank. People who have a lot to lose are entitled to voice their fears.

When this campaign is over, if the Tories win it must be clear to the whole country that the hard Left was defeated not only because of the threat it posed to British Jews, but because it lost the argument across the board. Boris Johnson must not expect the Chief Rabbi to do his work for him. Jeremy Corbyn and this Labour leadership is not only a threat to Jewish survival in Britain, but to the whole country.