Pledges to stamp out the ‘stain of anti-Semitism’
media. Mr Izzard said: “Although this isn’t the manner in which I had hoped to join the NEC I’m honoured to step up and represent Labour members at the heart of our party.
“This is a very important time for the Labour Party and we must stamp out completely the stain of antiSemitism from a minority of members. It has no place in our party.
“I have campaigned against hate my whole life and will continue to do so wherever it rears its ugly head.
“We must make amends and repair the damage with the Jewish community as Jeremy Corbyn has promised to do. We must get past this, for the good of the people Labour seeks to represent.
“We must unite our party around the platform of hope that Corbyn has built so that we can kick out this terrible Tory government and build a Britain for the many not the few.” Ms Shawcroft had already quit as chair of the party’s disputes panel, although she said when she defended suspended Alan Bull she had not seen his “abhorrent” post – which he insists he displayed only to provoke debate.
She sparked further fury on Friday by claiming the row about antiSemitism was being “stirred up to attack Jeremy, as we all know”.
She said her membership “has become a distraction for the party and an excuse for endless intrusive media harassment of myself, my family and friends”.
Mr Izzard is strongly anti-Brexit and on the Blairite wing of the party. His Twitter profile states: “I’m a British European, think like an American & born in an Arabic country. I’ve run a few marathons & have performed my show now in 44 countries in 4 languages.” In 2016 the then 54-yearold, who was born in Yemen, ran 27 marathons in 27 days to raise more than £1.3million for Sport Relief.