Advertisement

Shaming of Jeremy Corbyn sparks Labour civil war

Former leader Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party - Tolga Akmen/AFP
Former leader Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party - Tolga Akmen/AFP

Jeremy Corbyn vowed to fight his suspension from Labour on Thursday night as his allies accused the party's leader, Sir Keir Starmer, of "inciting war".

Mr Corbyn mobilised his supporters against Sir Keir as MPs, unions and members loyal to him demanded his reinstatement and reopened the toxic row over anti-Semitism within the party.

It came after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found Labour guilty of unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination as a result of "inexcusable" failures to tackle anti-Semitism under Mr Corbyn's leadership.

The former leader's party membership was suspended and the whip removed by Labour's general secretary after he claimed the scale of anti-Semitism in the party had been "dramatically overstated for political reasons" and later refused to retract his statement.

Len McCluskey, a Corbyn ally and the leader of Unite, Labour's biggest financial backer, was among those demanding that the decision be reversed, saying it would "cause chaos" and split the party, leaving it "doomed to defeat" at the next general election. Some union figures were discussing the possibility of a new breakaway party on Thursday night.

Mr Corbyn became the first serving or former leader of Labour to lose the whip since Ramsay MacDonald in 1931 on what Sir Keir described as a "day of shame" for the party.

Labour moderates hailed the decision as a watershed moment for Sir Keir's leadership, likening it to both Neil Kinnock's expulsion of the Militant Tendency and Tony Blair's decision to rewrite Clause IV in the party's constitution.

But Mr Corbyn made clear that he will not go down without a fight – and Sir Keir faces a revolt on multiple fronts that will test his authority to the limit in the coming months.

On Thursday night, Mr Corbyn held a crisis meeting with his former aides Seumas Milne and Karie Murphy, as well as former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and representatives from the Unite union and the Momentum activist group, to decide on their next move.

Speaking to The Telegraph, a senior Corbyn ally warned Sir Keir that he was now facing a "critical 24-hour period" in which to change course.

"This was a disastrous miscalculation," the source said. "It could now escalate. He doesn't understand the scale of what is about to happen, and it's going to get very difficult for him. Jeremy has an army behind him and a lot of legal funding."

Mr Corbyn has amassed a war chest of £350,000 which he could use to take legal action against the party. It began as a fund to defend him from a possible libel action by anti-Semitism whistleblowers, but attracted hundreds of new donations from supporters on Thursday.

The former leader still wields enough influence within the party to cause serious problems for Sir Keir. Labour membership swelled from 193,000 under Ed Miliband to more than 560,000 under Mr Corbyn.

If members leave en masse – together with their membership fees – Labour will be increasingly financially reliant on its union backers, many of which remain loyal to Corbynism. They include Unite which, with almost 1.3 million members, is the party's biggest backer.

The equalities watchdog served Labour with an unlawful act notice and gave it until December 10 to draft an action plan to implement the report's recommendations. The notice is legally enforceable by the courts if not fulfilled.

The EHRC found Labour had broken the law in relation to harassment, political interference and inadequate training for staff handling anti-Semitism complaints. The lapses "appeared to be a result of a lack of willingness to tackle anti-Semitism rather than an inability to do so", it said.

It found 23 instances of Mr Corbyn's office exerting influence over decisions on whether members should be suspended or investigated, including one complaint made directly against Mr Corbyn.

The inquiry also found that anti-Semitic comments by Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor, and Pam Bromley, a councillor in Rossendale, Lancashire, amounted to harassment of Jewish members under law and that this was "only the tip of the iceberg" of such behaviour.

In its findings, the watchdog said there had been "serious failings in the Labour Party leadership". Its lead investigator, Alasdair Henderson, described Mr Corbyn as "ultimately accountable for what happened at the time".

Sir Keir said the findings were "hard to read, and it is a day of shame for the Labour Party", adding: "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."

Mr Corbyn rejected some of the findings of the EHRC's 16-month investigation, saying it was "undeniable that a false impression has been created of the number of members accused of anti-Semitism".

He claimed the extent of anti-Semitism within Labour had been "dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party".

His comments set him on an immediate collision course with Sir Keir, who just moments later told a press conference that anyone in the party who said the report was "exaggerated or a factional attack" was "part of the problem" and "should be nowhere near the Labour Party".

Labour's general secretary, David Evans, is understood to have taken the final decision before the party announced that "in light of his comments made [on Thursday] and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation. He has also had the whip removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party".

Sir Keir said he was "disappointed" by Mr Corbyn and that "appropriate action" had been taken "which I fully support", although he stressed that he would not interfere with the investigation.

Mr Corbyn reacted by saying his suspension had been a "political intervention" and vowed to appeal against the decision. Implying that Sir Keir had ordered the move, rather than leaving it to the party's governance unit, he challenged the timing of the decision, telling reporters that the speed of his suspension "seems odd".

He said: "Quite clearly, a decision was made in a very quick way. I just say 'hang on a minute, let's all keep a bit calmer, let's think again about the whole issue'."

Allies of Mr Corbyn accused Sir Keir of personal involvement and "inciting war" against the party’s hard-Left. Mr McDonnell called the decision "profoundly wrong", while the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs said it would work "tirelessly" for Mr Corbyn's reinstatement.

In a clear warning shot, Momentum, the campaign group that first helped propel Mr Corbyn to power in 2015, described the suspension as a "massive attack on the Left" and urged supporters to stay and fight.

After dozens of members took to social media to announce they were quitting the party and posted pictures of cut-up membership cards, it said: "They want us to give up. They want us to throw in the towel. They want us to feel despair. But we're not going anywhere."

Five of Labour's biggest financial backers remain loyal to Mr Corbyn – Unite, the Communication Workers' Union, the Fire Brigades Union, the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union. Between them, they have around 1.6 million members.

Two weeks ago Unite voted to cut its affiliation fee to Labour by 10 per cent, and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union was reported to be considering following suit even before Thursday's events.

Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, accused Sir Keir of personally making a "political decision" to suspend Mr Corbyn, saying: "It's fundamentally wrong and needs to change."

One union source said: "We've reached a tipping point now. What the unions do next will be absolutely crucial. I think there are some people in Unite who think it may be time to discuss a new party. If Unite and the CWU decided to move, the Bakers Union, Aslef and TSSA may also move with them."

The Jewish Labour Movement said blame for the "sordid, disgraceful chapter" in the party's history "lies firmly with those who held positions of leadership".

The Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, described the report as a "historic nadir for the Labour Party".

Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, welcomed Mr Corbyn's suspension, saying: "Having presided over the descent of a proudly anti-racist party into a party that broke equalities law in its treatment of Jews, his shameless comments showed that he remains part of the problem and is an obstruction to the resolution of the issue."