JEREMY Corbyn allowed anti-Semitism to fester in Labour because he was too "upset" to stop it, one of his closest allies has said.

Emily Thornberry claimed the leftie boss was blinded by his emotions after being slammed over the party's racism crisis.

She was booed at a Jewish festival as she defended the party leader's response to the scandal.

According to the Jewish News, Ms Thornberry said: "When people accused Jeremy of being an anti-Semite, he was so upset, and as a result he has found it difficult to deal with the problem.

"He hasn’t dealt with it properly, but to call him anti-Semitic is wrong."

The Shadow Foreign Secretary admitted Labour's handling of the crisis was "shameful" and slammed "obscene" left-wing activists who hate Jews because they think they're all ultra-capitalists.

She added: "It breaks my heart to see how we’ve lost trust with Jewish people... why should people trust us, given what’s happened?"

Critics blasted the claim that Mr Corbyn was blinded to the problem because he felt hurt by the anti-Semitism claims.

Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said: "If he is too upset to deal with a problem he created it just confirms he is unfit to lead a political party let alone a country."

The Labour leader has been repeatedly criticised for failing to crack down on anti-Jewish bigots within the party.

High-profile figures such as Ken Livingstone have been caught spreading racist tropes.

But Labour initially refused to adopt the internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism in full, prompting a fresh wave of outrage.

And Mr Corbyn has been drawn in personally thanks to his history of sharing a platform with Islamist extremists.

Veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge called him "an anti-Semite and a racist" to his face - sparking a huge backlash from fanatical Corbynistas.