FORMER Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not have the party’s whip restored, his successor as Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer has announced.
The shock decision means that Corbyn will not officially be a Labour MP.
In a statement on Wednesday, Starmer said: ‘I’m the leader of the Labour Party, but I’m also the leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
‘Jeremy Corbyn’s actions in response to the EHRC report undermined and set back our work in restoring trust and confidence in the Labour Party’s ability to tackle anti-Semitism.
‘In those circumstances, I have taken the decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn. I will keep this situation under review.’
His decision will please Israel, Tory leader Johnson and Labour’s right wing, but will anger millions of workers and the UK trade unions, and will split the Labour Party.
Islington MP Corbyn was suspended several weeks ago for his response to a report by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
It found after a lengthy investigation that Labour had been responsible for ‘unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination’.
In response, Corbyn claimed ‘the scale of the problem’ was ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media’.
But within hours, he was suspended pending an investigation – a decision his successor Sir Keir Starmer then said he had no involvement in but supported.
Starmer said: ‘I don’t want a split in the Labour Party.’
On Tuesday, a five-member disciplinary panel from Labour’s National Executive Committee met and decided Corbyn should be reinstated.
Afterwards, Corbyn tweeted: ‘I am pleased to have been reinstated in the Labour Party and would like to thank party members, trade unionists and all who have offered solidarity.’
Starmer has now moved in to insist that Jeremy Corbyn will not sit as a member of the Labour Party in the House of Commons.
Sir Keir said he would keep his decision under review.
Many consider that Starmer is keen to dump Corbyn to clear the way to forming a national government with the Tories.
The former leader was reinstated as a member of the party on Tuesday, having been suspended over his response to a human rights watchdog report on anti-Semitism in Labour ranks.
Starmer has now undone that decision revealing a determination to split the Labour Party and the trade unions,
Labour MP Clive Lewis said the new leader’s decision was ‘extending self-battering on this issue’ and was not ‘the right thing to do.’
