kirsty it's not an exaggeration to say
that there is absolute turmoil tonight
in the parliamentary labour party this
is what one shadow minister
told me number 10 could not have
designed this better to make us look
awful it is a disaster and let's just
look at this tweet from dame margaret
hodge the veteran labour mp
and former minister who told jeremy
corbyn to his face
that he was a racist and an anti-semite
so she has tweeted
i simply cannot comprehend why it is
acceptable for corbyn to be a labour mp
if he thinks anti-semitism is
exaggerated and a political attack
refuses to apologize never takes
responsibility for his actions
and rejects the findings of the ehrc
report
ridiculous she said now i understand
that dame margaret
has relayed her concerns directly to
sakir stama
and as i understand it he faces a fight
on his hands
to persuade her to remain as a labour mp
so how did it blow up well this all
dates back three weeks ago
to the finding by that ehrc report that
the labour party had
unlawfully discriminated against jewish
labour party members now on the day of
the report jeremy corbyn
accepted the recommendations of that
report and
he said that there had been a problem
with anti-semitism but then
he said this the numbers have been
exaggerated in my view the public
perception in the opinion poll last year
was that one-third of all labour party
members were somehow or other
under suspicion of anti-semitism the
reality is it was
0.3 per cent of party members
had a case against them which had to be
put through
the process well that claim about an
exaggeration led to his suspension from
labour
which was endorsed by kirstalma
i made it clear that we won't tolerate
anti-semitism or the denial of
anti-semitism
uh through the suggestion that it's
exaggerated
or factual and that's why i was
disappointed with jeremy corbyn's
response and that is why appropriate
action has been taken which i fully
support and now jeremy corbyn has been
readmitted to the labour party after
releasing a statement that he
sent to the party on the day of his
suspension
in which he clarified his remarks so
let's look at the actual
crucial bit of that statement and there
you go it says to be clear concerns
about anti-semitism
are neither exaggerated nor overstated
the point i wish to make was that the
vast majority of labour party members
were and remain committed anti-racist
deeply
opposed to anti-semitism now jeremy
corbyn regards that as a clarification
not a u-turn a clarification that
people's concerns about anti-semitism
were not exaggerated but the scale of
anti-semitism
was exaggerated so this would appear to
suggest that jeremy corbyn is saying yes
i now fully support what is in the
equalities and human rights commission
report
but that still leaves clear stamina the
problem it undermines his leadership
yes so tonight he is under intense
pressure with a very unhappy
parliamentary party and tonight he
tweeted
a lengthy thread not a word welcoming
jeremy corbyn
uh back into the party and this is how
he began that he said i know
that this has been another painful day
for the jewish community
and those labour members who fought so
hard to tackle anti-semitism
i know the hurt that has been caused and
the trauma people have felt now i spoke
to one member of the shadow cabinet
they do not detect in this decision to
bring jeremy corbyn back sort of
die-hard supporters in the nec plotting
to bring jeremy corbyn back
it's more a case of labour officials
taking to heart one of the main
criticisms in that report of political
involvement
in decision making over cases and
keeping jeremy corbyn at arm's length
but there is a very strong sorry kirsten
there's a very strong feeling in the
labour party and indeed in the shadow
cabinet
that kierstarma and the leadership have
one card left they could play
which is not to restore the labour whip
to jeremy corbyn
nick thank you very much indeed well to
discuss this further i'm joined in the
studio by jenny manson the co-chair
of jewish force for labour and from
liverpool riverside
the former mp for that area louise
ellman uh jenny manson first of all
why couldn't jeremy corbyn simply
apologize today for what he said on the
day that the report was published well
first of all i want to correct something
you were saying he did not um reject the
findings for the hrc i want to say some
things about the hrc report myself
he did not reject the findings in that
speech you'll find he did not release he
said that
let's be quite clear what he said you
said that it actually had been
accusations of anti-semitism the party
has been dramatically exaggerated so i
was talking about the fact he did not
reject the findings of the hrc report
which i think was said a moment ago he
didn't
we didn't say he rejected the findings
he said they've been dramatically
exaggerated
okay the fact i didn't apologize i'm
asking you that straightforward question
because many of us know that these
claims have been exaggerated
i am jewish too there's a lot of talk
about the jewish community just now
and how offended they are and how kiers
very worried about them
nobody seems to remember that there are
about 250 000 or 300 jews
in thousand views in this country a very
large number of us
in terms of your numbers in terms of
your numbers
make your your point about the numbers
what i'm trying to say is
there is a many many jewish communities
and they are not all upset about german
being back in the day party an awful lot
of us are very happy that he's back in
the party
and a lot of us would say like he said
that the allegations
were over over exaggerated partly by the
media so the figure he mentioned
in a book called bad news for labor they
discovered that people out there
think that 30 percent of labour party
members have investigated the actual
figures are something like no but no
can i also say that many of those
allegations according to the ehrc
were not correct can i just say that you
talk about many uh
jewish people are behind jeremy corbyn
this 84
of the british jewish community believe
there's a specific
threat to british jews according to the
campaign against anti-semitism's yearly
study
that is a substantial amount you know
that the the british born of jewish
deputies
which overwhelmingly think this is a
retrograde step and you don't represent
them no
can i just say something about 10 10 20
years ago
jews stop voting labor so there's a
considerable feeling about 80 percent of
people don't believe
among the jews who are secular jews
often
don't get invited for these um surveys
because they're not even registered
all i can tell you is that the haredi
community it does not feel like that
secular jews don't feel like that you
cannot or you say secular jews as if
it's a
you know the homogeneity
of the actual report jeremy corbyn said
he will support the ehrc
recommendations in foo is he right to do
that
the recommendations are okay but can i
just say something about the agency
right but he's right to do that he's
perfectly right to do that there are
some points there that we're very
worried about we want for example
as another jewish a part of the jewish
community we are very much hoping that
kia stammer will talk to us about
training
we have our own training beliefs but let
me just tell you one thing about the
report the
report found it makes no statement about
the scale of anti-semitism whatsoever
but what it did find
is that there were very unfair practice
in the
investigation and many respondents
people accused are particularly unfairly
dealt with well let's
talk about nobody's talking about that
let's move on and talk about the future
do you now think that all supporters of
jeremy corbyn should throw their weight
behind kirsten
and bring unity to the party um
it's a difficult question i would be
very sad indeed if the whip is taken
away from jeremy
i do of course i'm a labour party member
and i'm fiercely loyal to the party and
i would very much like unity
i'm very pleased and are you ready to
throw your weight behind kirsten i don't
know what so what it means i've never
thrown my weight behind any leader i
agree with support okay everything that
he's doing for the party and shoot
other people in the same position as you
with your views do the same i wasn't
happy with his view on the bill on on
soldiers amnesty
nobody ever ever supports a leader
completely of course i support
the leadership of the labour party and
the labor party i'm a labor party member
fiercely loyal
very very happy to to have unity again
pleased with the decision today
i would be very pleased what happens if
kia starmer does
remove the whip from jeremy corbyn you
said you heard nick what say that that's
a possibility well
i'll be very sorry what i want to talk
about is justice jeremy is a very good
man he's an anti-racist
the ehrc report admits that when he he
appointed the general secretary jenny
formby
procedure started to get better shami
chakrabarti's report
is validated in the hr plan i would like
the media and yourselves i'm very
pleased to be on
to start to look a bit more widely at
what's going on what the report says
what what jews apart from those who
speak up against him think
we are also important we also spoke
indeed indeed let me now
turn to louise louise melvin what do you
make of jeremy corbyn's readmittance
today
i think this is a a backwards step and
kierstama has been very clear
that he was going to eradicate labour's
shameful anti-semitism and after all the
ehrc report
found jeremy corbyn's leadership
responsible
for anti-semitism in the labour party
and said that the growth of anti-jewish
racism in the labour party was at odds
with the party's commitment to
anti-racism so it couldn't have been
clearer than that
k stammers has given strong commitments
today a decision was taken by the
members of the labour party through the
national executive committee
to readmit jeremy corbyn without him
making
any apology for what he had done i think
it is a very practical step
if he had made an apology would that you
think have drawn a line in the sand
if he had accepted his responsibility
for the demise of the labour party
partly because of its anti-jewish racism
and
regretted what he had done i think that
would have made it very
he did he didn't he did say that
he made it clear the concerns about
anti-semitism weren't exaggerated he did
say that today
the statement he issued today was more
of a form of words i suspect designed
to allow him to be readmitted to the
labour party
and that phrase was very ambivalent he
could have been referring to
anti-semitism in society
not in the labour party and he is
responsible for what has happened
it is disgraceful and horrendous that
under his leadership
british jews were thinking of leaving
the country should he become prime
minister
most people have now recognized that the
labor party
went into a very shameful situation it
must now
get away from that clear storm has given
the commitment to do it
the members of the labour party today
did something that took us backwards
i hope that the members of labor party
now will listen
to the labour party's new leadership and
let's rid the labour party of this
dreadful anti-jewish racism
in a way i mean kierstarma took on board
this idea that one of the criticisms had
been of
procedures before that there had been
political interference from the leader's
office
so of course he stood back and as it
were let the procedure
take place there was nothing else
presumably that kiristama could have
done
before today well this was a decision
of labour party members through the
national executive committee
and it's uh it suggested me that at
least those members simply have not
changed and new members have now been
elected
to that committee and i hope the new
members will follow the new leader
kirsten you think there's still problems
within the nec
sorry they clearly are but clearly they
clearly are big problems
looking at today's decision and what
kirsten
and the chief whip should do now is to
refuse to restore the whip
to jeremy corbyn in that way they can
show
that they are determined as they said
they are to with the party of this
dreadful state so
you know we heard you have heard nick
watts say that he has spoken to
uh three labour mps and hears that there
is a very great likelihood
that margaret hodge will resign as a
labour
mp tomorrow um can you give me your
reaction to the possibility of that
well margaret hodge has been a valiant
opponent
of racism in the party and challenge
jeremy corbyn directly
she has fought very very hard against
anti-semitism in the party it would be a
tragedy
if at this stage under a new leader she
felt forced to resign
but the labour party have to show that
they are going to change
and they're going to allow kierstorm of
the new leader to deliver his promises
so as far as you're concerned she should
stay
it has to be decision for margaret that
it would be a very tragic situation
if after all the fighting she's done she
felt she had to go
i hope the situation can be redeemed so
just uh picking up what you were saying
about the whip you believe
that that what is open now to cure
stamina is to withdraw
the whip from jeremy corbyn what then
happens
in your view if that if he was to do
that what would then happen
presumably there would be people like
jenny manson
and others of her ilk there would be
again
a big battle in the party
there will be an ongoing battle in the
party until the party is rid of the
stain
of anti-semitism you can't be an
anti-racist party
at the same time as carrying out racism
against jewish people
after all the the equality and human
rights commission found that jewish
members of the labour party
had been harassed and had faced in
direct discrimination
that is shameful