Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on Jeremy Corbyn to make a full “no ifs, no buts” apology for the anti- Semitism crisis that ultimately saw him lose the whip as a Labour MP.
Sir Keir Starmer announced on Wednesday that he not restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn because he had “undermined and set back" work to restore trust in Labour’s ability to tackle anti-Semitism.
Mr Corbyn was reinstated as a member of the party on Tuesday, three weeks after he was suspended for his response to an Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report.
But Sir Keir said he would not allow his predecessor back into the parliamentary party, meaning he will continue to sit as an independent MP.
Speaking about the incident on Thursday on Good Morning Britain, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Mr Corbyn should “admit he got it wrong” before he is allowed to sit as an MP.
He told GMB: “Jeremy has to make a full apology. No ifs, no buts, no caveats, no qualifying sentences. He has to admit he got it wrong.
“There is no place for anti-Semitism, no place for any form of discrimination in our society.
Gordon Brown appeared on GMB to defend Sir Keir’s decision
Good Morning Britain“And if people are in any doubt about where he stands he has got to make it absolutely clear he will have no truck with anti-Semitism at any time in the future.
“Until he makes that clear, Keir Starmer, I suppose, will continue to insist that he stays outside the Labour Party in Parliament even though he is a member of the Labour Party.”
GMB host Susanna Reid pushed him: “It’s a very odd situation from the outside looking in. Is he welcome in the Labour Party or not?”
Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of Britain's Labour Party, reacts as he leaves his home in north London
AFP via Getty Images“You see Jeremy said the problem had been exaggerated but I say if there is even one case of anti-Semitism you have got to deal with it”, Mr Brown replied.
“It’s completely unacceptable and you have got to apologise and reassure people.”
He added Mr Corbyn needed to reassure every community “black, ethnic or Jewish” that “we were all in this together.”
Mr Corbyn was suspended from Labour last month for his response to the EHRC report which found the party had broken the law in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints.
He claimed the scale of anti-Semitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons” by opponents inside and outside Labour, along with the media.
But he later attempted to clarify his comments in a statement to the party, saying concerns about anti-Semitism were “neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated’”.
Veteran Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge has suggested she would have left the party if Mr Corbyn had been reinstated as a Labour MP, and Mr Starmer’s choice to deny his predecessor the whip “did a lot to restore his credibility”.
Dame Margaret told the BBC Today programme: “It was completely wrong for the party to let Corbyn back in under a process that was shown, again, to be broken and politically corrupted, and I think it was completely right of Keir Starmer to deny Jeremy Corbyn the whip.
Sir Keir said in a statement: “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.
“Jeremy Corbyn is not a Labour member of Parliament, and that was what made it possible for me to take the decision really that I wouldn’t have to leave the party.
She added: “To be honest, on Monday night I just can’t describe the feeling of rejection that I experienced and I know that other Jewish members have experienced.
“I’m sick and tired of talking about Jeremy Corbyn, this isn’t really about him.
“It’s about Jews, it’s what happening to Jews within the Labour Party – he’s not the victim, we have been the victim of the anti-Semitism."
Jeremy Corbyn is a Labour Member of Parliament. He absolutely should have the whip immediately restored.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) November 18, 2020
This division only helps the Conservatives.
It's time to unite to take on this rotten government.
Diane Abbot, who served as shadow home secretary under Mr Corbyn, echoed Unite’s general secretary Len McClusky’s opinion that removing the whip from Mr Corbyn was a “vengeful and vindictive” act.
She tweeted: “The leadership should reinstate Jeremy as a matter of urgency. This is not the act of people who genuinely want to unite the party.”
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the action was “just plain wrong” and would cause “more division and disunity in the party”.
