Starmer reveals he has not spoken to Corbyn since fallout from anti-semitism report

SIR KEIR STARMER has not spoken to Jeremy Corbyn in over a year following a report into Labour Party anti-semitism, he has disclosed.

The Labour leader said the pair had not had a conversation since Oct 2020 when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published its report into how the party handled complaints of anti-semitism when Mr Corbyn was leader.

Mr Corbyn was subsequently suspended from the party. He was reinstated as a member by the National Executive Committee, but sits as an independent MP after Sir Keir did not restore the Labour whip.

Sir Keir told the BBC’S Political Thinking podcast that he had not spoken to his predecessor since the night before the EHRC report was published. When asked whether he would restore the Labour whip to Mr Corbyn which would enable him to stand as a candidate for the party at the next election, Sir Keir said: “It’s up to him.”

He added: “He knows what he must do in order to move this forward. He’s not chosen to do so – that’s his choice”.

Asked if it was likely Mr Corbyn would not be able to stand as a Labour candidate, Sir Keir said: “I don’t know, but at the moment that may be the case.”

At the time the report was released Sir Keir said he was “disappointed” by Mr Corbyn’s response as he claimed the issue had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.

Sir Keir said Mr Corbyn’s response was “just about as bad as you can get”, and led to his suspension.

Speaking at a Jewish Labour Movement virtual conference a month after the report was published, Sir Keir said: “I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with Jeremy Corbyn’s response.

Because the words he used, what he said, coming from the former leader of the Labour Party in response to that report, were just about as bad as you can get.

“Everything in a sense that has followed in the last few weeks follows from those words, and that has exacerbated the pain and the hurt, and we are in a position that I did not want to be in.”

‘He knows what he must do in order to move this forward – he’s not chosen to do so, that’s his choice’