Starmer says it is ‘day of shame’ for Labour after EHRC finds party broke law over antisemitism – politics live
Labour Party #LabourParty
7.18am EDT 07:18
Starmer is asked for a second time whether Jeremy Corbyn should remain in the party.
He says that the report does not make individual findings about Jeremy Corbyn, before going on to answer another question about Covid-19. This is zipping along.
7.17am EDT 07:17
Keir Starmer: a ‘day of shame’ for the Labour party
The EHRC’s reports are stark and leave no room for equivocation, Keir Starmer has said in his first reaction to the release of the equality watchdog report.
“I found this report hard to read and it is a day of shame for the Labour party,” the party leader has said.
He’s currently speaking in a press conference, where he said he knew how hard the last few years had been for those who he said had been driven out of the Labour party.
Keir Starmer: EHRC’s stark antisemitism report a ‘day of shame’ for the Labour party – video
“I hear you and I promise you Labour will act,” said Starmer, who said he would ensure that the leader, or deputy leader’s office, would have nothing to do with the process of complaints
In what appeared to be a reference to his predecessor – Starmer stressed the “I” – he said: “The Labour party I lead accepts this report.”
“If you are antisemitic you should be nowhere near this party and we will make sure you are not.”
There are still those who believe that the claims of antisemitism in the party who believed it was a “factional attack,” said Starmer, and they should be nowhere near it as well.
Updated at 8.49am EDT
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Jeremy Corbyn should have said sorry in his reaction to the EHRC report and accepted its findings, the former Labour MP Ruth Smeeth has said.
“But honestly this is no longer about him. We have to look towards how we can rebuild the Labour party,” she told the BBC, adding that it was important to ensure that the party could become a home for British Jews again.
Asked if Corbyn should continue to be a member, she said it was a matter for the current leadership.
Updated at 8.33am EDT
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The Guardian’s deputy poltical editor, Jessica Elgot, has been attending an EHRC briefing on its report
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Formal complaints against Corbyn and other MPs submitted to Labour 
Formal complaints against Jeremy Corbyn and more than a dozen other Labour MPs have been submitted to the party in response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report on antisemitism.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said Keir Starmer must implement reforms and hold its members to account. “To that end, we have submitted complaints against Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and 15 other sitting MPs, and have given Labour six months to conduct transparent investigations and finally deliver justice for the Jewish community,” it said.
Gideon Falter, chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said the report was groundbreaking in its finding of unlawful acts.
“The EHRC’s report utterly vindicates Britain’s Jews, who were accused of lying and exaggerating, acting as agents of another country and using their religion to ‘smear’ the Labour party. In an unprecedented finding, it concludes that those who made such accusations broke the law and were responsible for illegal discrimination and harassment.
“The debate is over. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour party became institutionally antisemitic…..
“Jeremy Corbyn and those around him who took part in or enabled the gaslighting, harassment and victimisation of Britain’s Jewish minority are shamed for all time.”
Updated at 8.32am EDT
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Labour given until 10 December to draft an action plan
Labour has been given until 10 December to draft an action plan to implement the report’s recommendations, which is legally enforceable by the courts if not fulfilled.
Labour has committed to proper training, with the EHRC recommending it should be mandatory and fully implemented within six months.
Other recommendations made by the watchdog include commissioning an independent process to handle antisemitism complaints and acknowledging the effect political interference has had and implementing clear rules to stop it happening again.
We’re about to hear Labour leader Keir Starmer’s formal response
Updated at 8.31am EDT
6.58am EDT 06:58
Corbyn also said while he did not accept all of the EHRC findings, he trusted its recommendations.
“One anti-Semite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated.
“My sincere hope is that relations with Jewish communities can be rebuilt and those fears overcome. While I do not accept all of its findings, I trust its recommendations will be swiftly implemented to help move on from this period.”
6.50am EDT 06:50
Jeremy Corbyn responds to report
The former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has responded to the report’s publication by saying that he did not accept all of the EHRC’s findings and added that the scale of the antisemitism problem in Labour was “dramatically overstated” for political reasons.
In a statement posted on Facebook, he said: “Anti-Semitism is absolutely abhorrent, wrong and responsible for some of humanity’s greatest crimes. As Leader of the Labour Party I was always determined to eliminate all forms of racism and root out the cancer of anti-Semitism. I have campaigned in support of Jewish people and communities my entire life and I will continue to do so.
Corbyn added that the report showed that when he became Labour leader in 2015, the party’s processes for handling complaints “were not fit for purpose.”
Reform was then stalled by an obstructive party bureaucracy, he said, but from 2018, Jennie Formby [who served as general secretary of party from 2018 to May 2020] and a new governing executive that supported his leadership made substantial improvements, making it much easier and swifter to remove anti-Semites.
“My team acted to speed up, not hinder the process,” said Corbyn.
“Anyone claiming there is no anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is wrong. Of course there is, as there is throughout society, and sometimes it is voiced by people who think of themselves as on the left.
“Jewish members of our party and the wider community were right to expect us to deal with it, and I regret that it took longer to deliver that change than it should.”
Updated at 8.25am EDT
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EHRC report a ‘damning verdict’, says Board of Deputies of British Jews
The leaders of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust have described the report as a “damning verdict” on what Labour did to Jews under Jeremy Corbyn and his allies.
“It proves why British Jews were so distressed and it disgraces those who attacked us for speaking out against anti-Jewish racism,” the statement said.
“Our Jewish community never wanted this fight, but we had to defend ourselves and are proud to have done so. We thank all those who stood with us, despite the abuse they received as a result.
“Jeremy Corbyn will rightly be blamed for what he has done to Jews and Labour, but the truth is more disturbing, as he was little more than a figurehead for old and new anti-Jewish attitudes. All of this was enabled by those who deliberately turned a blind eye.
“Now, the task of cleaning out the problem lies with the current leadership. We welcome the start that Keir Starmer has made, but the scale of the challenge that lies ahead should not be underestimated.”
The bodies pledged to continue to give their support “to all who work to drive racism out of our politics and out of our society”.
Updated at 6.45am EDT
6.39am EDT 06:39
Ken Livingstone comments cited in EHRC report
Two Labour figures, former London mayor Ken Livingtone and a councillor, Pam Bromley, are named in the report and are key to its finding that the party engaged in harassment
It says that the party “through its agents” committed harassment against its members in relation to Jewish ethnicity in the case of Livingstone and Bromley. This took the form of suggesting that complaints of antisemitism are fake or smears. An example was given in relation to the former Labour mayor:
Ken Livingstone
In media interviews in April 2016 when Livingstone was on Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), he made reference to social media posts made by Naz Shah MP.
Naz Shah’s posts had included a graphic suggesting that Israel should be relocated to the United States, with the comment “problem solved”, and a post in which she appeared to liken Israeli policies to those of Hitler. She apologised for her comments in parliament and conceded that they caused “upset and hurt to the Jewish community”.
But Livingstone repeatedly denied that these posts were antisemitic and sought to minimise their offensive nature. In his denial, he went on to allege that scrutiny of Shah’s conduct was part of a smear campaign by “the Israel lobby” to stigmatise critics of Israel as antisemitic, and was intended to undermine and disrupt the Corbyn leadership.
The EHRC had taken Livingstone’s right to freedom of expression into account, and he was not protected by it.
Ken Livingstone speaks leaves Milbank Studios on 28 April 2016, at a time when he had been suspended from Labour party for comments made while defending comments made by Naz Shah, a Labour MP. Photograph: Rob Stothard/Getty Images
Pam Bromley
Another way in which harassment was committed against Labour members in relation to Jewish ethnicity was by the use of antisemitic tropes. This was the use of written or verbal phrases or images that suggest antisemitic ideas or stereotypes. An example was given in relation to Bromley, then a Labour party councillor for Rossendale borough council in Lancashire, and who is now an independent.
She posted on Facebook: “Had Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party pulled up the drawbridge and nipped the bogus AS [antisemitism] accusations in the bud in the first place we would not be where we are now and the fifth column in the LP [Labour Party] would not have managed to get such a foothold … the Lobby has miscalculated … The witch hunt has created brand new fightback networks … The Lobby will then melt back into its own cesspit.”
Updated at 8.23am EDT