Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn will be readmitted to the party after being suspended following a probe that found it unlawfully discriminated against its Jewish members, numerous sources reported.
A five-member disciplinary panel from the party decided Tuesday that Corbyn be readmitted, according to Sky News. Corbyn had been suspended Oct. 29 after an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that during Corbyn’s leadership, complaints of anti-Semitism were not properly handled. (RELATED: Former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn Suspended After Anti-Semitism Probe Finds Party Discriminated Against Jewish Members)
Corbyn refused to accept the findings of the probe, and instead insisted that the “scale of the problem was dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Corbyn also gave a press conference and said “I’m not part of the problem,” according to Sky News.
A Labour spokesperson announced that “in light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation,” Business Insider reported in October. Corbyn also had his whip removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Corbyn issued a statement Tuesday that said it was “not his intention” to say that anti-Semitism should be tolerated and that the concerns about anti-Semitism “are neither ‘exaggerated’ not ‘overstated,’” according to the BBC.
“The point I wished to make was that the vast majority of Labour Party members were and remain committed anti-racists deeply opposed to anti-Semitism,” the letter said.
He also announced his reinstatement on Twitter, thanking party embers and trade unionists for their “solidarity.”
I am pleased to have been reinstated in the Labour Party and would like to thank party members, trade unionists and all who have offered solidarity.
Our movement must now come together to oppose and defeat this deeply damaging Conservative government.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 17, 2020
It’s unclear whether there is an ongoing investigation.
The Jewish Labour Movement rebuked the decision to readmit Corbyn to the party, and called his statement “insincere and wholly inadequate.”
The Jewish Labour Movement’s statement on Jeremy Corbyn’s readmission to the Labour Party pic.twitter.com/eMMjJgKoJm
— Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) November 17, 2020
“After his failure of leadership to tackle anti-Semitism, so clearly set out in the EHRC’s report, any reasonable and fair-minded observer would see Jeremy Corbyn’s statement today as insincere and wholly inadequate.”
Upon Corbyn’s rise to party leader in 2015, ties with the Jewish community began to deteriorate, especially as Corbyn gained the endorsement of Labour’s extreme left. The commission’s report found that Corbyn’s office had interfered with a 2018 complaint about Corbyn’ criticism of a decision to paint over a mural of a hooknosed banker, an anti-Semitic trope. Corbyn’s office later apologized.