Ken Loach has called for Labour MPs who attended a demonstration against anti-Semitism to be thrown out of the party.
The I, Daniel Blake film-maker and staunch Jeremy Corbyn ally made the comments at a Labour event in Bristol, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
He said Labour would not be able to govern “if you’ve got two-thirds of Labour MPs undermining Jeremy Corbyn when he is Prime Minister”.
He added: “Unless we get Labour MPs who believe in that manifesto last year we won’t get in power.
“If they’ve been going to the demonstration against him outside Westminster... those are the ones we need to kick out.”
The 1,500-strong rally, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was attended by a string of MPs, including Luciana Berger, Wes Streeting, John Mann, Thangam Debonnaire and Chuka Umunna.
In a highly-critical letter, Avi Gabby, chair of the Labor Party of Israel, said the party would have no further relations with Corbyn’s office while the issues of anti-Semitism in UK Labour fail to be “adequately” tackled.
Loach, who made Labour’s campaign broadcasts before last year’s election, said the MPs who supported the antisemitism protest, however, were guilty of “dirty tricks”.
Loach went on: “You cannot work with people who have come to undermine the biggest challenge we’ve had - we’ve never had a leader like Corbyn before in the whole history of the Labour Party….and that’s why the dirty tricks are going to come out.”
Corbyn was forced to defend Thangam Debonnaire as a “good MP who is working as part of our team” when her local members attempted to pass a motion condemning her for attending the rally.
They claimed she brought the party into disrepute, but Debonnaire’s supporters voted down the motion.