“Sir Keir is offering the Jewish community crumbs” by withholding the whip from Jeremy Corbyn after former leader was readmitted by sham process
Campaign Against Antisemitism has reacted to Sir Keir Starmer’s statement that he is withholding the whip from Jeremy Corbyn, who was yesterday readmitted to the Labour Party by the same processes that the Equality and Human Rights Commission had declared unfit for purpose.
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We have been conned. We did not go to the lengths of asking the EHRC to investigate the Labour Party only to return to the days of opaque, arbitrary decisions by panels that are unfit for purpose.
“Withholding the whip from Jeremy Corbyn is offering the Jewish community crumbs. The EHRC ruled that Labour’s disciplinary processes were unfit but Sir Keir allowed Mr Corbyn to be tried under them. Not only that, but Mr Corbyn should never have been suspended merely for his response to the EHRC’s damning report, but for the responsibility he bears for the Labour Party being found guilty of committing unlawful acts of antisemitism by the EHRC.
“Sir Keir needs to get a grip of his Party and ensure that Mr Corbyn is held to account for what he did to Britain’s Jews. Who is in charge of the Labour Party? Today, we have submitted a second complaint against Mr Corbyn, calling for him to be held to account not by a sham panel but by an independent disciplinary process, as required by the EHRC. Sir Keir must suspend him pending that process, and, if our complaint is upheld, Mr Corbyn must be expelled.”
Earlier today, Campaign Against Antisemitism lodged a further complaint against Mr Corbyn, alleging that he bears personal responsibility for the Party’s institutional antisemitism and must be held to account. We previously submitted a complaint against Mr Corbyn and other sitting MPs which the Labour Party has yet to acknowledge, let alone investigate, and now we have submitted a further complaint against Mr Corbyn.
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (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.
In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.
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.
