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Labor was thrown into fresh turmoil Wednesday after Keir Starmer refused to return the whip to Jeremy Corbyn, despite what Corbyn’s allies claim was a private agreement to do so.
Faced with the prospect that at least one high-ranking Jewish MP, Margaret Hodge, might leave the party in protest of Corbyn’s return to the fold, Starmer issued a strong statement saying that she would not welcome her predecessor to the party. parliamentary.
However, Starmer’s decision provoked an immediate reaction from the party’s left, with 31 MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group calling it “incorrect and damaging to the Labor Party.”
The decision was made a day after a disciplinary panel of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) lifted the suspension of Corbyn’s party membership over controversial comments he made when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released a report. damning on labor anti-Semitism last month.
Starmer said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s actions in response to the EHRC report undermined and delayed our work to restore confidence in the Labor Party’s ability to tackle anti-Semitism. Under those circumstances, I have made the decision not to return the whip to Jeremy Corbyn. I will keep this situation under review. “
Corbyn was suspended for a statement he issued following the release of the EHRC report on October 29, in which he said that the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labor Party had been “dramatically exaggerated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party. , as well as by a large part of the media ”.
In a “clarification” submitted to the NEC and released this week, Corbyn said the claims of anti-Semitism had not been “exaggerated.”
Starmer made his decision after speaking with Hodge Tuesday night. It is understood that the veteran Labor MP was on the verge of resigning. She told Starmer that she felt betrayed by the swift lifting of Corbyn’s suspension and that she risked undoing all the rebuilt trust with Jewish community groups.
Hodge told The Guardian: “Keir has made the right decision but a lot of confidence has been undermined. I can’t tell you the anger the Jewish community is going through. There was a lot of trust and many people will feel frustrated and hurt by what happened, that is devastating ”.
Corbyn’s allies are considering legal action as a possible next step – the former leader has put together a legal fight fund totaling more than £ 300,000.
Starmer was accused of “bad faith” by Unite leader Len McCluskey, who according to allies was involved in brokering a deal that he and others believed would allow the former leader to become a Labor MP again.
Multiple sources say the talks took place in recent weeks between Corbyn representatives and key figures in Starmer’s office, including his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
Corbyn’s side believed that the result of those negotiations was that the NEC would impose less punishment on Corbyn and the matter would be closed. They claim that the “clarification” issued by Corbyn earlier this week was agreed with Starmer’s office.
However, a source in Starmer’s office insisted that “there was no agreement.” They said Corbyn had been repeatedly urged to retract his comments from last month, and that his allies had simply been “pushing” for him to reinstate him to the party.
A Labor source also said that the party leader was angered by tweets sent by people whom they regarded as Corbyn’s “escorts” on Tuesday, suggesting that Corbyn had been exonerated.
In fact, the NEC panel decried Corbyn’s behavior and sent him a “reminder.” Other conditions were also attached to the ruling: The Guardian understands that one of them was that Corbyn removed his controversial original post from Facebook, which, as of Wednesday night, he had not done.
In a public statement issued Wednesday night, McCluskey said: “I am in awe of the decision to withdraw the PLP [Parliamentary Labour party] Jeremy Corbyn whip.
“This is a vindictive and vindictive action, stripping party democracy and due process alike, and is tantamount to overturning the unanimous decision of the NEC panel yesterday to reinstate Jeremy to the party.
This action gives rise to a double criminality in the handling of the case and shows a marked bad faith ”.
Starmer’s team noted that the leader has no say in the makeup of NEC’s disciplinary panels or their findings.
Marie van der Zyl, chairwoman of the British Jewish Board of Deputies, welcomed Starmer’s decision and criticized the process that led to Corbyn’s reinstatement as a party member.
“The Labor disciplinary process clearly still does not fit its purpose. Keir Starmer has now made the appropriate leadership decision not to return the whip to Jeremy Corbyn, ”he said. “We keep saying that ‘zero tolerance’ must mean just that, be it to anti-Semites or their apologists.”
Labor MP Neil Coyle, who has been an outspoken critic of Corbyn’s approach to anti-Semitism while he was a leader, said the case should be examined by the independent process that Starmer said he would establish under EHRC recommendations.
“Keir is trying to fulfill his first confessed priority as a Labor leader: rebuilding trust with the Jewish community,” he said.
“The whip cannot be restored until the new genuinely independent complaint process evaluates this case and ensures a fair decision is made.”
The NEC panel was convened with a one-day warning, though members were not told which case they would preside over.
It is understood that the panel members received a “drastic” warning from the party’s lawyers that anything more than a formal reprimand would have ended up in high court.
However, the panel agreed to put conditions on the reprimand and the decision was finally unanimous, after a long debate.
Party sources said there would be no way for the leader’s office to fix the panel’s decision, although it was known internally that the sanctioning power of the NEC panel was restricted.
