Labour MP John Mann addresses the British parliament’s general debate on antisemitism. Photo: Screenshot.

A Labour MP who served in the House of Commons for 18 years has resigned, citing antisemitism within the party.

The UK paper The Guardian reports that John Mann, who has been outspoken against antisemitism in Labour, said following his resignation that party leader Jeremy Corbyn “has given the green light to the antisemites and, having done so, has sat there and done nothing to turn that round.”

Mann is now set to become the Conservative government’s point man on combating antisemitism.

“Every time I go into a meeting with a group of Jewish people, I wince when they raise the issue of the Labour party and Corbyn,” Mann said.

“It is impossible to overstate the anger that I have about that,” Mann added.

Corbyn, he said, “has not just hijacked my political party — he has hijacked its soul and its ethics. I will never forgive him for that.”

Mann added that he was no longer able to campaign for Labour in good conscience.

“I can’t do that this time and I’m not prepared to lie to my voters,” he said. “And neither am I prepared to tell them that Corbyn is appropriate to be prime minister. Because I don’t think he is.”

“The Jewish community is the canary in the cage for the health of everybody else and society,” Man asserted. “That has been the case throughout history.”

“I have no fear in challenging antisemitism wherever it needs challenging, and will introduce effective systems to do that,” he said.

Since Corbyn seized control of Labour in 2015, the party has been wracked by antisemitism scandals, several touching Corbyn himself. Polls show the overwhelming majority of British Jews consider him personally antisemitic.

In February, seven Labour MPs left the party, citing antisemitism as one of the primary reasons. One of the dissident MPs, Luciana Berger, said that Labour was now “institutionally antisemitic.”