Angela Rayner appears in smiling photograph with prominent Labour member previously suspended over remarks about antisemitism
Angela Rayner has appeared smiling in a photograph with Jeremy Corbyn, who was previously suspended from the Labour Party over remarks about antisemitism and remains suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Ms Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Party, smiles in the photograph with her colleague Barry Gardiner, who also served in Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet with her.
The promotional photograph was taken at an event organised by Unite in connection with a private members’ bill brought by Mr Gardiner.
Sources close to Ms Rayner are reportedly claiming that she was ‘photobombed’ and that the intention had been only to take a photograph with Mr Gardiner, but that Mr Corbyn had also been invited to the event without her knowledge and simply inserted himself into the photograph. As observers have noted, this is unlikely given that he handed her the microphone to speak.
The photograph comes in the same week as Ms Rayner launched antisemitism training in the Labour Party. It is understood that the training session was well attended, although there were also antisemitic reactions among some Party members to its initial announcement.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has outstanding complaints with the Labour Party against Ms Rayner, Mr Gardiner and Mr Corbyn.
Earlier this year, there were reports that the Labour Party has dismissed our complaint against Ms Rayner without so much as an acknowledgement. However, given that the Party has yet to introduce an independent disciplinary process, we consider our complaint to remain live.
Since then, Ms Rayner has continued to court controversy in relation to the Jewish community.
Campaign Against Antisemitism recently reiterated our call for Mr Corbyn to be expelled from the Labour Party after he again played down antisemitism in the Party, and his own antisemitism.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously lodged a complaint against Mr Corbyn, holding him responsible for conduct that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Labour Party, as the Leader during the period of the EHRC’s shameful findings. Given the serious detriment that this conduct has caused, we are seeking Mr Corbyn’s immediate resuspension and, if the complaint is upheld, we will be requesting his expulsion. On the day of the publication of the EHRC’s report, we also submitted a major complaint against Mr Corbyn and other sitting MPs. These complaints are yet to be acknowledged by the Party, and they must be investigated by an independent disciplinary process that the EHRC has demanded and Sir Keir has promised but has yet to introduce.
Mr Corbyn was suspended by the Labour Party following his disgraceful comments on the publication of the report into Labour antisemitism by the EHRC and a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism. He was then rapidly and controversially readmitted to the Party but the whip has not been restored to him, leaving him as an Independent MP outside of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
The Labour Party was found by the EHRC to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
