THIS has not been a good Easter weekend for the Labour party.

If Jeremy Corbyn thought his comments last week admitting Labour “must do better” over the issue of anti-Semitism had defused the problem, a raft of negative newspaper headlines this morning confirmed the opposite.

A Sunday Times investigation revealed that the 20-biggest pro-Corbyn Facebook groups feature more than 2,000 messages that are either anti-Semitic, racist or abusive.

A Labour spokesperson claims the groups are not connected with the party in any way, but with Christine Shawcroft having resigned from Labour’s National Executive Committee on Saturday because of her opposition to the suspension of a council candidate accused of denying the Holocaust, it is time for Mr Corbyn to get a grip of a situation that is spiralling out of control.

The Labour leader will claim he has already spoken out against anti-Semitism, but to this point, his words have felt half-hearted at best. To compound the situation, a number of his supporters have accompanied their criticism with anti-Zionist rhetoric that simply serves to muddy the waters even more.

If Mr Corbyn wants to tackle the problem head on, he needs to publicly denounce all those within his party who would seek to pursue an anti-Semitic agenda and pledge to immediately dismiss anyone within the Labour party, at any level, who makes anti-Semitic remarks or helps to promote them online.

There can be no place in the Labour party for any form of anti-Semitism, yet the public perception at the moment is that the practice is rife. It is Mr Corbyn’s responsibility to ensure that does not continue.