The UK’s Opposition Labour Party on Thursday suspended former leader Jeremy Corbyn from its ranks after a report by the country’s human rights watchdog held the party “responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” during his time in charge.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which had launched an investigation into antisemitism within the party following a string of complaints, found that Labour had broken the law in its failure to handle antisemitism, or anti-Jewish, complaints and there were “serious failings” by its leadership at the time.
However, in his reaction to the report, Corbyn said that the number of complaints made during his tenure were “dramatically overstated”.
“One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated,” said Corbyn, in reference to the report.
A Labour Party spokesperson issued a statement soon after to announce that Corbyn had been suspended from the party.