THE former Labour Party candidate for Salisbury says it is "time to acknowledge the harm that has been done to the Jewish community and the serious leadership failings that took place" following Jeremy Corbyn's suspension.

Tom Corbin, who stood for the Labour Party in last year's general election and is a serving Salisbury city councillor, has been reacting to the news of Jeremy Corbyn's suspension over his reaction to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into anti-Semitism in the party during his leadership.

The report found the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination. The watchdog found, that Labour broke equality law in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints with Jeremy Corbyn bearing ultimate responsibility for the failings.

Councillor Corbin said: "Labour's failure to robustly deal with instances of anti-Semitism has been devastating especially where high profile cases as listed are concerned and Keir Starmer is absolutely right to apologise for this.

"As a new leader Jeremy chose to not interfere with internal party disciplinary procedures which ordinarily is correct. However it must be said that the party was slow to get a grip of this under Jeremy's leadership which allowed the party to be smeared as anti-Semitic, which is really upsetting and frustrating for all Labour party members and activists."

Salisbury Journal:

He added: "Jeremy's statement obviously shows that he wishes to defend his role, but following the report it really is time to acknowledge the harm that has been done to the Jewish community and the serious leadership failings that took place.

"Under Keir Starmer's leadership, Keir has demonstrated that there is no place for antisemitism and that action will be taken to ensure the Labour party exists for people from all backgrounds."

Labour councillor Ian McLennan, who is the Wiltshire councillor for Laverstock, Ford and Old Sarum, said: "Speaking personally, I was very pleased to see the full apology and decisive action initiated by Sir Keir Starmer this morning. His success will be judged by swift outcomes, to rid the party of anyone acting against any minority.

"The previous leader must bear responsibility for failure to visibly eradicate the problem, on behalf of the whole Labour movement. It starts with sorry."

Today a Labour Party spokesman said: “In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation."

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The former Labour leader has insisted he was not “part of the problem” over the party’s handling of anti-Semitism.

In a broadcast interview he said: “The numbers of cases in the public perception had become overstated.

“The existence of the problem, I fully acknowledge, which is why I took action to end the problem in the party by introducing a process to get anti-Semites out of the party.”

In response to Sir Keir Starmer’s comments about those who deny the seriousness of anti-Semitism being part of the problem, Mr Corbyn said: “No, I’m not part of the problem.”

Mr Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer admitted the report’s findings marked a “day of shame” for the party and said he was “truly sorry for all the pain and grief that has been caused”.

Salisbury Journal:

Mr Corbyn said he did not accept all the EHRC’s findings and insisted he had improved the process for handling anti-Semitism complaints.

The EHRC identified three breaches of the Equality Act relating to: political interference in complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism cases and harassment.

The party has been served with an unlawful act notice and has been given until December 10 to draft an action plan to implement the report’s recommendations, which is legally enforceable by the courts if not fulfilled.

The EHRC found 23 instances of inappropriate involvement by the Leader of the Opposition’s Office (LOTO) and others in the 70 files the watchdog looked at.

Labour has committed to proper training, with the EHRC recommending it should be mandatory and fully implemented within six months.

In a statement, Mr Corbyn said: “The EHRC’s report shows that when I became Labour leader in 2015, the party’s processes for handling complaints were not fit for purpose. Reform was then stalled by an obstructive party bureaucracy.

“But from 2018, (then general secretary) Jennie Formby and a new NEC that supported my leadership made substantial improvements, making it much easier and swifter to remove anti-Semites. My team acted to speed up, not hinder the process.”

In response to the EHRC report, he said that “while I do not accept all of its findings, I trust its recommendations will be swiftly implemented to help move on from this period”.

But Sir Keir – at a press conference – said: “If – after all the pain, all the grief, and all the evidence in this report – there are still those who think there’s no problem with anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, that it’s all exaggerated, or a factional attack, then, frankly, you are part of the problem too.

“And you should be nowhere near the Labour Party either.”