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Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds has blamed a “politicized” disciplinary process for Jeremy Corbyn’s reinstatement to the Labor Party, as a former MP resigned from the party and its internal division deepened.
Dodds’ comments came after a backlash against Keir Starmer’s decision not to return the Labor whip to Corbyn following his suspension. A panel of the Labor Party’s governing body had allowed him to return to the party with a written warning.
Former Labor MP Thelma Walker, a former parliamentary aide to Dodds’ predecessor as shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, said Wednesday that she had resigned from the party in protest of Starmer’s treatment of Corbyn.
Walker, who lost his seat in the 2019 election, tweeted: “I attended my branch meeting tonight and resigned my membership in the Labor Party. It was a privilege to serve as a Colne Valley Labor MP, be John McDonnell’s PPS, and work with Jeremy Corbyn as the Labor leader. I will continue to work for many, not for a few. “
Corbyn was suspended for comments he made following an equality watchdog report on anti-Semitism in the party. He said: “The magnitude 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.”
He was reinstated to the party 19 days later, after a panel of the Labor National Executive Committee (NEC) agreed to give the former leader a formal warning and restore his party membership, but Starmer said he would not allow Corbyn to sit as MP. Labor. Starmer said Corbyn’s position will remain under review.
Dodds said the Human Rights and Equality Commission found that the disciplinary process was not fit for purpose and should be replaced by an independent system, which the party has said it will abide by.
“It is a source of great regret and shame for my party who discovered that we were missing. We have to solve that system. It cannot remain a politicized system. Keir Starmer has promised to change it and … we are now under legal duty, “he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
Dodds said the decision to reinstate Corbyn under the old system “indicates that that process is not the right one, it is not the one we need … We have six weeks to respond to that report and a large part of the response will be around the launch of a new process, which is completely independent, in which everyone can have confidence, including the Jewish community ”.
MP Margaret Hodge, the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labor Movement, who is believed to have told Starmer that she would resign from the party on Tuesday night after the initial decision to reinstate Corbyn, said refusing to return the whip to Corbyn “ it did a lot to restore its credibility. “
“The terrible truth is that he [Corbyn] it constantly becomes the center of the discussion, “he told Today.
“What we have to eradicate is anti-Semitism, and as long as he is one of the individuals who refuses to accept the degree of anti-Semitism in the party, he constantly says that people like me have been politically motivated and are attacking him personally. to attack the anti-Semitism that he expressly tolerates and that he has allowed to spread throughout the party, that’s really the problem. “
Jeremy Corbyn is elected Labor leader and the party’s membership rises to more than half a million.
Naz Shah, a Labor MP, is suspended after sharing a post on Facebook suggesting that Israel should be relocated to the United States.
Labor publishes an investigation into Shami Chakrabarti’s anti-Semitism, but the post is overshadowed by a dispute over comments made by Corbyn in which he appeared to make a comparison between the Israeli government and Islamist extremists.
Corbyn laments after it emerged that in 2012 he had supported a street artist accused of producing an anti-Semitic mural in London’s East End.
Three days later, Corbyn issues his strongest condemnation of anti-Semitism yet, declaring that he is “a militant opponent” of anti-Jewish hatred as members of the Jewish community stage a protest outside parliament. Corbyn makes many similar statements in the run-up to the 2019 election.
Veteran Jewish Labor MP Margaret Hodge is subject to disciplinary proceedings after calling Corbyn an anti-Semite during an angry confrontation in the House of Commons, after Labor decided not to adopt the International Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism in its entirety to Holocaust Remembrance (IHRA).
Three Jewish newspapers carry similar front pages, criticizing Labor’s decision not to adopt the IHRA definition. In a joint editorial, they write that a government led by Corbyn would pose an “existential threat to Jewish life in this country.”
Corbyn refuses to apologize after footage from 2013 surfaced of him saying a group of Zionists “had no sense of irony.” Corbyn said he had used the term Zionist “in the exact political sense and not as a euphemism for the Jewish people.”
Seven Labor MPs, including prominent Jewish member Luciana Berger, quit the party to found the short-lived ChangeUK, in part accusing party leaders of not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.
Labor is decisively defeated in the general election, prompting Corbyn to resign.
The EHRC’s 130-page report concludes that the Labor Party could have addressed anti-Semitism more effectively “if the leadership had chosen to do so.” Following its publication, former leader Jeremy Corbyn is suspended for the match.
A bitter closed-door battle is also being waged, with Starmer being accused of “bad faith” by Unite leader Len McCluskey, who allies said was involved in negotiating a deal that he and others believed would allow the former leader to sit as 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.
