JEREMY Corbyn has been suspended by Labour after his shameless response to a damning report by equality chiefs which found the party broke the law.
This morning under-fire Mr Corbyn refused to apologise after the Equality and Human Rights Commission found the party under the hard left-former leader allowed vile harassment and abuse of Jewish members to thrive.
In a shameless statement, Mr Corbyn said today: “The scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”
Just hours later he was suspended by the party.
A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: “In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation.
“He has also had the whip removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party.”
The Labour boss added he “did not accept all of the reports findings.”
He blamed inheriting a broken complaints system and attacked the party for failing to overhaul it.
Mr Corbyn claimed as leader he was “determined to eliminate all forms of racism” including anti-Semitism – but the ECHR said his team had meddled in complaints.
The report found there were three separate breaches of the law – for members harassing Jewish members, Mr Corbyn’s team stepping in and interfering with complaints of anti-semitic bullying, and the party failing to provide training to deal with those complaints.
Interim Chair of the EHRC Caroline Waters slammed the Labour party and Mr Corbyn for failing to take leadership and quell the disgusting abuse.
She said: “We found specific examples of harassment, discrimination and political interference – but equally of concern was a lack of leadership within the Labour Party on these issues, which is hard to reconcile with its stated commitment to a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism.”
Members of the Labour Party pushed “anti-semitic tropes” and when victims of the abuse raised their voice, they were told their claims were “fake”.
And people have called for Mr Corbyn to be sacked after he once again refused to take responsibility.
Ex-MP Joan Ryan said: “I think Jeremy Corbyn has to be expelled, he’s dumped himself this morning.
“One of these unlawful acts and harassment was saying these complains were fake or smears.
“And he’s added to that by saying these complaints by anti-semitism were exaggerated – that’s tantamount to the same thing he and others had been saying right from day one.”
The Jewish Labour Movement has demanded anyone who claims anti-semitism complaints were “exaggerated” should be booted out of the party.
Chairwoman and Labour MP Margaret Hodge said the former leader is in “denial” about anti-Semitism.
She said “it happened on his watch” and said he is “yesterday’s man”.
Former Labour MP Lord Iain Austin accused Mr Corbyn of “playing the victim” and should resign for the Labour party.
‘DAY OF SHAME’
Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “day of shame” for the party and demanded a change in culture in the party.
He accepted the report in full and vowed to come up with a plan to tackle all the issues within six weeks.
“I will be judged by what I do, not what I say,” Sir Keir said this morning.
In a warning shot at critics he blasted: “If you are anti-semitic, you should be nowhere near this party, and we will make sure you are not.
“We have failed our members, our supporters and the British public.
“I am truly sorry for the pain and grief that has been caused.”
In a side swipe at the former Labour boss he said anyone who claimed anti-Semitism was “exaggerated” was a “part of the problem”.
But he shied away from booting Mr Corbyn out of the party, saying there was a “collective failure in leadership” and not “individual findings” against the former leader.
The report found:
- Jeremy Corbyn’s team personally meddled in at least 23 anti-Semitism complaints
- The party broke the law three times and must submit a dossier by December 10 or they could face further action
- Labour had “serious failings” in leadership and its complaints process wasn’t up to scratch
- Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was found guilty of harassment
- At the worst the party “could be seen to accept” anti-Jew hate
As leader, Mr Corbyn staged shocking political interventions into complaints against anti-semitic members 23 times.
These included stopping investigations happening or preventing people being suspended.
The report illustrated an example of Mr Corbyn meddling in a complaint against himself – after he praised an anti-semitic mural.
Staff working for the former leader dismissed the complaint saying it “falls well below the threshold” for an investigation.
The party was served a notice of unlawful act and has until December 10 to come up with an action plan to tackle the breaches of the Equalities Act.
EHRC’s Alistair Henderson put the blame onto Mr Corbyn, saying “As leader of the party, with evidence of political interference within his office, he has a responsibility for those failings.”
Sir Keir has vowed to build bridges with the Jewish community in the wake of the anti-Semitic abuse – and will now face calls to boot Mr Corbyn out of the party.
Earlier this year he sacked loyal Corbynista Rebecca Long-Bailey from his shadow Cabinet after she shared an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on Twitter.
This morning, Mr Corbyn’s son Tommy heaped praise on him saying, “Interesting day ahead I’m sure.
“Whatever anyone writes in any report, this man is the furthest thing from a racist as it’s possible to be. I’ve spent my entire life watching him relentlessly fight every form of racism and oppression across the globe.”
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said the report was a “groundbreaking document”.
He said: “The debate is over. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party became institutionally antisemitic. It drove almost half of British Jews to consider leaving the country.
“For five miserable years, every effort to compel Labour to reform failed.
“The EHRC’s findings and recommendations today – that Labour’s leadership and culture created an unlawful environment that discriminated against Jews – closely align with the hundreds of pages of evidence and argument that we submitted to the EHRC over many months.”
“Frankly, this report would not be much different had we written it. It is the dispensing of British justice that British Jews have sorely awaited, but has been denied for too long.
“Jeremy Corbyn and those around him who took part in or enabled the gaslighting, harassment and victimisation of Britain’s Jewish minority are shamed for all time.
“Those who defended and stood by them are shown to have made possible the closest flirtation that mainstream British politics has had with antisemitism in modern history.”
Steve McCabe MP, chair of Labour Friends of Israel, added: “Today’s findings from the EHRC shows beyond doubt the extent to which the poison of antisemitism was allowed to enter Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and further confirms the extent of the terrible abuse suffered by Jewish members of the party.
” Today must mark the moment Labour decisively turns the page on the darkest chapter of our party’s history.”
POOR COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
The report also found that people who complained about anti-Semitism to the party were treated poorly.
It said the complaints inbox was “largely left unmonitored for a number of years and no action taken on the majority of complaints forwarded to it”.
And it blasted the party for choosing not to take action.
Labour could “act decisively when it wanted to” and had done so in the past on sexual harrassment, it said, but under Mr Corbyn it did not tackle anti-Jew hate.
MISSING RECORDS
Shockingly, 62 of the 70 files reviewed had records missing – and the EHRC had to demand more information.
The failure to provide a proper training programme to members led to a complete breakdown in trust, it said.
Most of the abuse targeted Jewish MPs on social media – at least 59 of the 70 complaints the watchdog investigated.
Labour had a policy of not investigating anti-Semitic posts which were “shared” or “liked” by members.
“This meant members could share as much anti-Semitic conduct as they liked”, the EHRC’s Alastair Pringle said.
PUSH BACK
And the watchdog said Labour refused to cooperate with their report last year, and originally refused to hand over Whatsapp messages.
Mr Henderson said: “It is very disappointing that we found those obstructions.”
Two key members of the Labour party – Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor, and Pam Bromley, a Labour councillor in Rossendale – were singled out by the report for pushing offensive anti-semitic tropes.
The pair suggested any complaints were “fake or smears”.
The Labour party was legally responsible for both Mr Livingstone and Mr Bromley’s actions, saying they helped spur on a “hostile environment” for Jewish members
Yesterday Mr Livingstone, claimed he expected the report to be “a bit of a con” and that they “whipped up” anti-semitism allegations to topple Mr Corbyn.
He told HOAR: “This was nothing to do with anti-Semitism – it was about getting rid of Jeremy Corbyn.”
He added: “Unless the report comes out and says this was a load of nonsense whipped up to undermine the Labour leadership, it won’t really be honest.”
But the two cases were just “the tip of the iceberg” and 18 more borderline cases were found of Labour Party candidates, councillors or party staff being anti-Semitic – but there wasn’t enough evidence to blame the party for it.
‘THREATS AND ABUSE’
This morning, ex-MP Ruth Smeeth slammed the hard-left former leader for hanging Jewish members out to dry and “doing nothing” as they faced “torrents and torrents of abuse”.
Opening up about the horrifying abuse, Ms Smeeth told Good Morning Britain her and other Jewish MPs experience daily harrassment, which still continues today, at the hands of members of the Labour Party.
She said: “What was happening to Jewish women throughout the country at Labour party meetings, and nothing happening.
“Jeremy Corbyn could’ve intervened, he could’ve stopped this, he never politically showed leadership.
“He left Jewish members to be bullied and harassed, to be hanged out of the Labour party, to face death threats and abuse from Labour party members.”
She said today was a “black day” for the party.
DRIVEN OUT
Another ex-MP, Louise Ellman said she was “driven out” of the party by “ugly antisemitism” which begun as Mr Corbyn was elected leader.
Writing in the Times today, She said the anti-Semitism of the party “became normalised with the entry of the far-left following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader.”
She said she was “targeted” by Labour party members in her own constituency who wanted to topple her as MP for being “a zionist”.
