A “PRIVATE” Cumbrian Labour Party meeting has backed a call to expel Lord Roger Liddle over his support for a controversial newspaper advert condemning Jeremy Corbyn for his handling of alleged anti-semitism.

An emergency motion voted on by the Penrith and the Border constituency Labour party on Thursday supported the Labour leader - but criticised the Wigton-based peer for joining 66 House of Lords colleagues in endorsing the Guardian advert.

It claimed Mr Corbyn’s legacy was a Labour Party which welcomed everybody “except Jews”. The advert - presented with the red rose Labour logo - accused him of “failing the test of leadership”.

Responding, members of the Penrith party gave “overwhelming” support to a motion expressing no confidence in the advert’s 67 signatories - who included the key New Labour figure Peter Mandelson, and the former Copeland MP Jack Cunningham.

The motion added: “In particular, [we express] no confidence in Lord Roger Liddle and call for him to be expelled from the Labour Party for bringing it into disrepute.”

Lord Liddle knew nothing of the vote, saying he would have happily explained his position had he been asked to do so.

But Dave Knaggs, who handles communications for the Penrith branch of the party, said the advert had left members feeling demoralised.

“There’s a big group in the House of Lords and the Parliamentary Labour Party who are not supportive of Jeremy Corbyn,” he said. “The attacks on the Labour Party have been absolutely relentless. People are so demoralised by it.

“So when you get a group of unelected people in the House of Lords do that it just feels like a betrayal. It just isn’t fair to focus on any one person. It must be awful for Jeremy Corbyn to have these accusations made on a daily basis when he has done more than anyone I know in the House of Commons to fight racism.”

Mr Knaggs said Corbyn had done everything that was asked of him to eradicate anti-semitism from the party but the scale of accusations meant the process was taking time. He said he had no objection to that process being done independently.

Former Cumbria county councillor Sean Halfpenny said debate at the “private” meeting had been “robust”.

He said of the advert’s signatories: “These people are a minority and they’re seeking to destabilise the Labour Party. I’ve no doubt there are antisemites in the Labour Party - there are antisemites everywhere. But I don’t think the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic.Lord Liddle told the News & Star: “But nobody has been in touch with me.

“It has no standing whatsoever, and they can’t expel me from the Labour Party but I don’t want to get involved in an argument about it. I regard it as pretty irrelevant. I regard myself as accountable to the members of the Labour Party in Wigton.

“The advert does not accuse Jeremy Corbyn and anti-semitism. It’s very careful about that but he is the leader of the party.”

He was impressed by the young people who featured in a recent Panorama programme, which investigated Labour’s handling of anti-semitism claims. Filmaker Ken Loach described the programme as a “hatchet job”. Lord Liddle said he had been impressed by their “patent sincerity”.

Attempts by Labour officials to silence them with non-disclosure agreements were “disgraceful”.

Lord Liddle added: “Ultimately, when you’re leader of an organisation, and that organisation is failing to adequately do something as serious as this, that person has to take responsibility.” He added that Mr Corbyn should do two things: firstly commit to suspending from the party anybody found to be antisemitic from the party; and secondly institute a wholly independent process for dealing with such racism complaints.”

Labour Peer Lord Alf Dubbs, who lives near Cockermouth, refused to back the Guardian advert about Corbyn. “I just wasn’t happy about it,” he said. “I think the idea anyone should be expelled is absolutely preposterous. What sort of party are we if we didn’t allow the expression of opinions, provided they are not racist of anti-semitic?”

The peer added: “The Labour Party should have nipped antisemitism in the bud. We moved too slowly.

“It should have been dealt with more positively than it was. But there is still time for the Labour Party to deal with it. As with other kinds of racism, antisemitism allegations should be dealt with swiftly and independently, had added.

A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy Corbyn has made clear in interviews , videos and articles that there is no place for anti-semitism in the party.”