By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON

London’s Metropolitan Police have launched a criminal inquiry into allegations of anti-Semitic hate crime in the main opposition Labour Party.

The investigation comes after LBC Radio obtained a document that listed 45 anti-Semitic cases involving messages posted on social media by party members.

Speaking to BBC Radio, Met Police chief Cressida Dick said that her officers were assessing and analyzing online material as “there may have been a crime committed.”

Dick added that the Met Police were seeking advice from the Crown Prosecution Service and that the Labour Party itself was not being investigated.

The document was handed by LBC Radio to Dick in September, though it had previously been shown to Mak Chishty, Dick’s predecessor before she took the Met’s helm in April 2017.

"We would always want institutions and political parties and similar to be able to regulate themselves,” Dick said regarding the claims of anti-Semitism.

"However, if somebody passes us material which they say amounts to a crime we have a duty to look at that and not just dismiss it,” she added.

"We have been assessing some material that was passed to me, in a radio studio of all things, about two months ago and we are now investigating some of that material because it appears there may have been a crime committed," she said.

Also speaking to BBC Radio, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson said there was no place in the Party for such behavior and that the “full force of the law” must be applied to everyone.

In September the Labour Party agreed to adopt the full international definition of anti-Semitism after a summer’s-long row over anti-Semitism engulfed the Party.

Along with adopting the full definition, Labour’s ruling body produced an accompanying statement that reserved the right to free speech and criticism of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians.