Starmer says he 'fully supports' decision to suspend Corbyn

Other Labour MPs expressed support for the decision to suspend Mr Corbyn over his claim that antisemitism allegations had been exaggerated by political opponents and the media.

Labour MP and mayor of the Sheffield City Region, Dan Jarvis, said there is “no place in Labour for antisemites or their apologists”, while Lord Adonis compared the moment to the “expulsion of Militant” in the 1980s. “This simply ensures the survival of Labour as a social democratic party, free of control by the militant far left. Making Labour electable is a whole challenge still to come,” he wrote.

Veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman immediately said Mr Corbyn’s suspension was “the right thing to do.” She added: “If you say antisemitism is exaggerated for factional reasons you minimise it and as Keir Starmer says, part of the problem.”

Mr Corbyn later issued a further statement saying that he will “strongly contest the political intervention” to suspend him. “I’ve made absolutely clear that those who deny there has been an antisemitism problem in the Labour party are wrong,” added the former Labour leader.

“It’s also undeniable that a false impression has been created of the number of members accused of antisemitism, as polling shows: that is what has been overstated, not the seriousness of the problem.”

He received support from the hard-left Momentum group that had backed him as leader.

On Thursday morning Sir Keir had described the publication of the EHRC’s report into antisemitism as a “day of shame” for Labour at a press conference held in response to the publication of the damning report.

Addressing the media, the Labour leader said: “We have failed Jewish people, our members, our supporters and the British public.

“And so on behalf of the Labour Party I am truly sorry for all the pain and grief that has been caused.

“To Jewish people, our Jewish members, our long-standing Jewish affiliate, JLM.

“To the people driven out of our party, the Jewish members driven out of Parliament, including Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger.”

Addressing the recommendations contained in the report, Sir Keir said he had “instructed my staff to start work with the Commission to implement the recommendations at the earliest possible opportunity.

“We will provide the Commission with our action plan to achieve all of this within six weeks.

“We will establish an independent complaints process – and it will be in place as soon as possible in the New Year.

“We will ensure that neither the Leader, the Deputy Leader nor our offices will have any involvement in the outcome of complaints initiated under the Labour Party processes.

“And we are already addressing the backlog of antisemitism cases. In fact, there have been more cases completed in the last six months than in the whole of 2019.”

Sir Keir then answered questions from the media, including repeated calls for him to say whether his predecessor as Labour leader should face action.

He initially said: “I’ll look carefully at what Jeremy Corbyn has said in full but I’ve said a moment ago and I’ll say it again, those that deny it’s a problem are part of the problem.

“Those that pretend it’s exaggerated or factional are part of the problem and under my leadership we will have zero tolerance of antisemitism.”

The Islington North MP said the party’s disciplinary process “were not fit for purpose” when he took over in 2015 and “regretted it took longer to deliver that change than it should”.

He said that he did not accept all of the report’s findings, but added: “I trust its recommendations will be swiftly implemented to help move on from this period.”

“One antisemite is one too many, but 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. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated,” Mr Corbyn said.

Shortly after 1pm, Labour confirmed that Mr Corbyn had been suspended.

Luciana Berger was amongst those to welcome news of the ex-leaders suspension.

In a series of media interviews Ms Berger – who quit Labour in February 2019 citing antisemitism and bullying allegations – said she welcomed its recommendations.

She said Sir Keir telephoned her on Wednesday night to apologise on behalf of himself and the Labour Party for the “distress” she had been through as a result of “the events that happened”.

But asked by Radio 5 Live presenter Emma Barnett when the last time she had spoken to the Labour leader previously, the former Liverpool Wavertree MP paused before replying, “September of 2018”.

Ms Berger was then asked: “So in all of that time, since then, you haven’t heard anything from him - even since he became leader at the beginning of this year?”

She replied: “No, no.”

Asked by Ms Barnett whether she felt this was acceptable, Ms Berger said: “I will judge Keir Starmer on his actions now in the wake of the report.”

She added: “Ultimately the responsibility rests with Jeremy Corbyn who was leader at the time.

“There were people in all areas of leadership who could have done more.”

Ms Berger also revealed that Angela Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Leader, had called her on the eve of the EHRC report’s publication.