FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives for the annual Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
November 17, 2020
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s former Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he has been readmitted to the party after being suspended following his comments downplaying a report critical of Labour’s handling of anti-Semitism complaints.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said in October it had found evidence of failure adequately to train people investigating alleged anti-Semitism, political interference in the processing of complaints, and harassment of individuals.
Corbyn, 71, reacted to the report by saying the scale of Labour’s anti-Semitism problem had been overstated by the media and his political opponents, and that his attempts to deal with the issue had been blocked by “obstructive party bureaucracy”.
Current leader Keir Starmer has been trying to make a clean break from the hard-left Corbyn era as he seeks to turn around Labour’s fortunes after four successive general election defeats since 2010.
Corbyn welcomed the decision by Labour’s National Executive Committee to reinstate him after three weeks on Tuesday.
“Our movement must now come together to oppose and defeat this deeply damaging Conservative government,” he wrote on Twitter.
But the Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a statement: “Today’s decision is a retrograde step for the party in its relations with the Jewish community. Labour’s mountain to climb to win back the trust of our community just got higher.”
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison)
