Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousef. Photo: Reuters/Russell Cheyne.

A prominent Scottish Muslim politician has accused UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn of allowing racism and antisemitism to fester in the party’s ranks.

“Let me be frank, when it comes to Jeremy Corbyn and racism he is utterly duplicitous,” Humza Yousef, the Scottish Justice Secretary, said on social media on Friday. “He says one thing and warm words, and then his actions simply do not match the rhetoric whatsoever.”

Yousef continued: “Whether that is on antisemitism which has plagued his party and continues to plague his party – or indeed whether it’s dealing with Islamophobia – I have no confidence whatsoever frankly in the Labour Party’s ability to deal with this.”

Yousef was referring to the Labour Party’s lack of progress in an investigation into a Labour councillor who made racist comments about him earlier this year. The councillor, Jim Dempster, remarked at a meeting with Scottish transportation officials in March that Yousef – at the time Scottish Transport Secretary – could not be seen “under his burka.”

Yousef pointed out that more than six months after the incident, the Labour Party has still not contacted key witnesses for an internal investigation. Pressed on the delay by reporters on Friday, Corbyn responded, “Listen, the case is being dealt with and it will be dealt with because we do not tolerate racism in any form in our society.”

The Labour Party is currently dealing with a backlog of 70 cases of antisemitism involving party members, but has made little progress due to what its National Executive Committee has described as “time constraints.”