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The “vast majority” of Labor would not have approved of Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission report on anti-Semitism in the party, Sir Keir Starmer said on Sunday.
The new leader also said that his predecessor should “reflect” on what he said after the publication of the findings of the EHRC investigation that found the party responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.
Corbyn was suspended from the party on Thursday after he used his initial response to the EHRC’s findings to suggest that the degree of anti-Semitism in the party while he was leader had been exaggerated.
In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr program, Starmer refused to be told if he wanted to see Corbyn reinstated to the party, saying that to answer that would prejudge the disciplinary process currently underway.
But Starmer said Corbyn should “reflect” on how he responded to the report when it was released.
“I think the vast majority of people in the Labor Party and the Labor movement in general think that was the wrong answer and the correct answer was to honestly accept the findings, apologize, move on,” Starmer said.
Starmer said that in his own response to the EHRC report he had made clear that “those who deny or downplay anti-Semitism in the Labor Party, and say it is simply exaggerated or part of a factional struggle, are part of the problem.”
Starmer continued: “So I was very disappointed by Jeremy’s answer, where he seemed to suggest that it was exaggerated, etc.
“I would invite Jeremy to reflect on what he said … because I think for most people what they wanted from the Labor Party on Thursday was an honest acknowledgment of the problem and an apology, a line in the sand and a constructive way to keep going, which is what I want for the Labor Party. “
In his initial response to the report, Corbyn said: “An anti-Semite is too much, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically exaggerated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as much of the media. “
Following the announcement of his suspension, which he has said he will “vigorously contest,” Corbyn issued a partial clarification, saying it was wrong to say that the Labor Party didn’t have a problem with anti-Semitism, but was only making a point about flawed public assumptions. about the numbers involved.
“It is … undeniable that a false impression has been created of the number of members accused of anti-Semitism, as polls show: that is what has been exaggerated, not the severity of the problem,” Corbyn said.
Corbyn was referring to a survey finding in a book on Labor and Anti-Semitism that suggested that people aware of the Labor anti-Semitism controversy guessed, on average, that 34% of party members had been the subject of a complaint. Corbyn says the true figure is 0.3%.
Starmer said he had not spoken to Corbyn since the decision was made to suspend him from the party.
He also rejected claims that the decision to suspend Corbyn, which also involves removing the party’s whip in the Commons, would plunge the party into a “civil war.”
“There is no need for a civil war in the Labor Party. I stood on a platform to join the party and I am determined to do so, but I also made a solemn promise that we would eradicate anti-Semitism and I will not sidestep difficult decisions to eradicate anti-Semitism, ”Starmer said. .
