Chakrabarti was longlisted for a peerage in March, say sources

JEREMY CORBYN discussed giving Shami Chakrabarti a peerage with his team in March, it has emerged, amid claims she was aware that her name was listed before agreeing to conduct a report into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

The Labour leader is understood to have longlisted Baroness Chakrabarti for an honour after he was made aware that new peers would be created by David Cameron following the EU referendum.

The shadow attorney general’s name was added before she was approached to conduct a report into antiSemitism, and Labour sources have claimed that she was told this prior to the announcement on April 29 that she would chair the independent inquiry into antiSemitism and other forms of racism in the Labour Party.

Baroness Chakrabarti denies being made aware that her name was on a longlist before she was officially approached by Mr Corbyn in July and offered the peerage.

It follows intense criticism of the decision amid claims there may have been a transactional element to the peerage, which came just weeks after the conclusion of a report that was branded a “whitewash” by critics.

Baroness Chakrabarti has said there was “nothing remotely transactional” about

her report when pressed if there were any talks about the peerage before it was completed.

Diane Abbott, Labour’s shadow home secretary, was forced to deny Baroness Charkarabrti had been “bought” with a seat in the House of Lords earlier this month.

She said: “Shami has been offered peerages both by Gordon Brown, and I believe, by the Lib Dem leader. If she could be bought for a peerage she would have been bought years ago.”

But sources in the House of Lords and within the Labour Party have told The Daily Telegraph that a longlist of potential Labour peerages was drawn up in March and added to in April this year. It is claimed that Baroness Chakrabarti knew her name was on the list in April, before she was approached to conduct the anti-Semitism report on the 29th of that month.

Both Baroness Chakrabarti and a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the first conversation they had about the peerage was on July 13 after David Cameron’s final Prime Minister’s Questions.

Asked if she was aware that her name had been longlisted before this date Baroness Chakrabarti said: “No.”

But sources close to the process have claimed that a conversation took place after which it was clear that a seat in the House of Lords was likely to be offered later in the year.

Baroness Chakrabarti was the only Labour peer to be named in Mr Cameron’s resignation list.

Speaking after she was told about the honour but before it had been publicly announced, the Baroness avoided questions about whether she would join the Lords. On July 20 she was asked if she had been offered a peerage and replied: “I ... erm ... I don’t know whether I want to talk about my future ambitions at this point.”

Asked again: “Have you been offered a place in the House of Lords?” Ms Chakrabarti replied: “You can ask the question and I’m going to evade it at this point.”

Baroness Chakrabarti’s report into anti-Semitism was condemned as a “whitewash” by critics after it emerged that she had joined the Labour Party just hours after being asked to chair it.

Her decision to join the party is understood to have been prompted by a desire to have her recommendations taken seriously.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn, approached about the March longlist, which included Baroness Chakrabarti, said: “The offer of a peerage was only made to Shami after her report was published as part of Cameron’s resignation honours.”