Labour has spent '£400k' on legal advice over antisemitism crisis

Mr Nardell will quit his role for the party next month to return to full-time practice at his chambers, Twenty Essex Street. 

Labour insisted that his decision to leave was nothing to do with revelations in a recent BBC Panorama programme in which former party staffers said their bosses had intervened in antisemitism cases, leaving them feeling undermined, anxious and depressed. 

Mr Nardell’s appointment last year was itself controversial. He was revealed to have been active on the party's left and had said he "absolutely" shared Mr Corbyn's views on Israel.

He was previously a member of the Labour Representation Committee, which has attacked allegations of antisemitism within the party as anti-Corbyn "propaganda" from the "ruling class".

In the year since Mr Nardell was appointed, the row over Jew-hate has worsened, amid the claims Mr Corbyn's staff have intervened in disciplinary cases to protect allies.

It has also emerged that at least two members of Jeremy Corbyn’s office have volunteered to give statements to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the statutory body investigating anti-Jewish racism in the party.