Corbyn suspended from UK Labour

The UK equivalent of the Human Rights Commission has released its report into anti-semitism in the UK Labour Party. Their conclusions:

• We have concluded that there were unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination for which the Labour Party is responsible.
• The Party has failed to implement the recommendations made in these reports fully, or to take effective measures to stop antisemitic conduct from taking place.
• This reflects a culture that is at odds with the Labour Party’s commitment to zero tolerance of antisemitism
• Antisemitism within the Labour Party could have been tackled more effectively if the leadership had chosen to do so
• We found evidence of political interference in the handling of antisemitism complaints throughout the period of the investigation. We have concluded that this practice of political interference was unlawful. The evidence shows that staff from the Leader of the Opposition’s Office (LOTO) were able to influence decisions on complaints

Jeremy Corbyn then came out and said the complaints were all exagreated and a device by his political opponents. This is despite the report explicitly saying:

Our investigation found that the Labour Party breached the Equality Act 2010 by committing unlawful harassment through the acts of its agents in two of the complaints we investigated. These included using antisemitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of antisemitism were fake or smears.

So Corbyn went out and did the exact thing the Commission found was unlawful – dismissing the complaints as fake. And he was then suspended for that. He is now trying to portray himself as the victim.

Andrew Rawnsley points out:

The victim of this hideous chapter in Labour’s history is not Jeremy Corbyn. The victims are those who were scared and scarred by the vile antisemitism that occurred when he was in charge. The victims are all those who needed an electable challenger to the Tories, not the toxic and sectarian party that Labour became under Mr Corbyn. The victims are the many millions of people who depend on having a Labour party capable of commanding the confidence of the public so that it can effectively represent those it exists to champion. Jeremy Corbyn is no martyr. He is a victim only of his own arrogantly self-pitying, self-denying delusions.

Sir Keir Starmer comes out of this looking strong and principled and UK Labour is 5% ahead in the latest polls. Sir Keir could well be the next PM.