Mr Corbyn said he was “upset at the feelings of some of our former staff” and, in the same breath, added he was also troubled by “what they said, the way the programme was characterised and presented - and we have put in some complaints around that”.
Saying that “we are not accepting any form of antisemitism in our party”, Mr Corbyn moved quickly to add: “We’ve also by the way adopted a definition of Islamophobia and any other form of racism is unacceptable.”
On the failure of Labour to swiftly or properly investigate antisemitism allegations, he said: “Where there is prima facie evidence of serious abuse then there is a need for a faster process… this is now being developed which will be voted on at this year’s conference.”
Mr Corbyn said about the Panorama whistleblowers: “I feel very sorry and sad for them. The first thing I did when I became leader of the party was to ask the senior staff what support there was for staff because of stress at work, that was nothing to do with antisemitism, I feel very strongly about that.
“Some of those people had to work very hard, there were overwhelmed by cases, and remember our party membership vituraly trebled."
When Ms Ridge pressed him on the claim that the former staff testified as having been undermined by the party, he said: “Well remember they were being asked to work very fast on a lot of complex issues and they had to sift through a lot of issues to find those involved were not even party members.”
