LABOUR leader Keir Starmer has called on Jeremy Corbyn to “reflect” on his comments, after the former party leader was suspended over his response to a damning anti-Semitism report.
Starmer said he was “very disappointed” in Corbyn’s reaction, describing it as the “wrong response” adding: “I haven’t spoken to him since.”
He said: “I think he should reflect on what he said. I think it’s pretty clear across the Labour movement that most people think he’s completely in the wrong place on this.”
Starmer said there was “no need for a civil war” in the Labour Party, adding that “we need to be united, but we also absolutely need to root out anti-Semitism”.
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The MP for Holborn and St Pancras told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “Well I was very clear in my response to the commission (Equality and Human Rights Commission) report on Thursday, which found that the Labour Party had acted unlawfully and there’d been a failure of leadership, that we needed to accept the findings, accept the recommendations and implement them and apologise.
“But I also went on to say that, under my leadership, we will root out anti-Semitism and that those that deny or minimise anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and say it’s just exaggerated or part of a factional fight are part of the problem.
“I was therefore very disappointed in Jeremy’s response where he appeared to suggest it was exaggerated etc, and I’d invite Jeremy just to reflect on what he said on Thursday and think about what he said because I think for most people what they wanted from the Labour Party on Thursday was an honest recognition of the problem and an apology, a line in the sand and a constructive way to move forward, which is what I want for the Labour Party.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission found that the party broke equality law when Corbyn was in charge.
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