I read Royston Gay’s letter “Labour’s anti-Semitism shames us all” with the deepest dismay.

As a Labour Party member of Jewish descent, I simply do not recognise the Labour Party he writes of.

The notorious Panorama programme he speaks of was a prime example of a tabloid hatchet job, which falls apart with any serious analysis. Apart from the fact it was concocted by a Murdoch acolyte, who paraded a succession of “victims” who nearly all belong to organisations with an axe to grind, where was the right of reply and counter-argument?

Let’s give the anti-Semitism issue a little context. Cases of anti-Semitism involving Labour Party members amount to less than 0.1% of the membership. While many hundreds of incidents have to be dealt with, and I hope each and every one receives the severest sanction, the number of members involved is still relatively small. Any is too many, but this needs to be been in perspective.

There is less (and diminishing) anti-Semitism in Labour than in society in general, and certainly less anti-Semitism and other forms of racism than in the Conservative Party.

So why is it that all the media’s focus remains on the Labour Party? The elephant in the room is that anything that can be used to undermine Labour under its present leadership is regarded as fair game by everyone from the Labour right, to the Tories and to those even further to the right. Attacking Corbyn on this issue is absurd; he is a lifelong opponent of racism of all kinds.

As someone whose family suffered grievously from the worst form of anti-Semitism, I find all this both distasteful and disturbing.

Paul Halas

Stroud