PROMINENT Labour members in Scotland have said there is a “huge problem” with anti-Semitism in the party amid fresh claims of abuse by Jeremy Corbyn supporters.

It came as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn deleted his personal account on Facebook in the wake of criticism that he had previously been a member of groups in which people had posted anti-Semitic content.

No reason has been given for the move but it is understood that his official Facebook page – Jeremy Corbyn MP – will continue to remain active.

Last night, Labour has distanced itself from a series of pro-Corbyn social media groups after an investigation by The Sunday Times found they contained hundreds of violent and abusive messages.

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The investigation into 20 of the biggest pro-Corbyn Facebook groups had uncovered routine attacks on Jewish people, including Holocaust denial.

It reported that 12 senior staff working for Mr Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were members of the groups which contained more than 2,000 racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, violent and abusive messages.

The revelations follow a tumultuous week for Labour which has seen fresh recriminations within the party, as well as a protest outside Parliament led by Jewish leaders who accused Mr Corbyn of repeatedly siding with anti-Semites.

Comedian Eddie Izzard has replaced Christine Shawcroft, a left wing supporter of Mr Corbyn, on Labour’s NEC after she quit amid criticism of her opposition to the suspension of a council candidate accused of Holocaust denial.

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Margaret Curran, a former Labour shadow Scottish secretary, said she would never have anticipated such an eruption in her 40 years in Labour politics.

“I think there is a lot of Labour members around the UK quite broken hearted by this experience,” she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme.

“For all that I would criticise Jeremy Corbyn strongly in many ways, I would never have associated him with any of this kind of anti-semitism. It is clearly a huge problem.”

Some Scottish Labour members suspect that the anti-semitism row is being exploited by Corbyn’s critics to undermine his leadership.

The Edinburgh Eastern CLP passed a motion on Thursday warning of “a systematic and organised campaign designed to destabilise the party leadership”, while a separate motion in February called for an end to “automatic and instant expulsions and suspensions – especially those based on alleged anti-Semitism”.

The motion, which also urged Labour to reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition which “conflates anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism and support for the rights of the Palestinian people”, was not backed by the CLP.

Eight out of ten Labour members think anti-semitism in the party is exaggerated and more than six out of ten think the leadership is handling the issue well, according to a YouGov poll for The Times.

Writing the Mail on Sunday, Paul Sinclair, a former adviser to Gordon Brown, said: “If those figures are anywhere near true, Labour has a much deeper problem than anyone thought.”

Blair McDougall, former Better Together chief and Labour candidate for East Renfrewshire, urged leaders to act over “sinister” behaviour.

“The party has a serious problem and unlike any other form of racism, a huge section of our party is spending its time explaining it away rather than challenging it,” he said.

The current Scottish Labour leadership has been accused by its opponents of a “deafening silence” on anti-semitism after it emerged it has sent no MSPs to a Holyrood cross party group on building bridges with Israel.

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Scottish Labour MSP Mary Fee is a member of the group but has not attended any meetings, according to the Sunday Herald.

Conservative MP Paul Masterton, whose East Renfrewshire constituency includes a sizeable Jewish population, said: “At Holyrood, Labour MSPs rightly condemn and highlight other forms of racism in Scotland, but seem totally incapable of taking the same approach when it comes to calling out anti-semitism. Their silence is deafening, and totally unacceptable.”

Danielle Bett, the Scotland regional manager at the Jewish Leadership Council, added: “We would welcome someone in the Scottish Labour party being part of the discussions in the group. Because of the heated debate at the moment, it would be helpful in terms of building relationships.”

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “Mary Fee is a member of this group. Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has been very clear that there is no place in Scottish Labour for anti-semitism and that this is not a battle for the Jewish community to fight alone, it is a battle for us all.”