The EHRC’s measured tone contrasted with Starmer’s dramatic suspension of Corbyn. Neither will bring resolution
Keir Starmer’s unexpected decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour party was in stark contrast to the cool and measured tone of the long-awaited Equality and Human Rights Commission report into antisemitism in Labour, which carefully avoided the attribution of personal responsibility. One of the defining features of the Labour antisemitism controversy has been the intense passions it generates. Amid this maelstrom, the EHRC intervened with the technical language of law and institutional process. Starmer has responded with a disciplinary action that will, at least in the short run, inflame this bitter dispute.
Nevertheless, that coolness of tone does not take away from the force of the report. The fact that a party that regards anti-racism as central to its self-definition – particularly during the Corbyn years – has been investigated for racism is shocking in and of itself. It is devastating that the Labour party was found to have breached the Equality Act – both through harassment committed by its “agents” and “indirect discrimination”, in the form of political interference in complaints procedures, unclear and chaotic institutional responses and inadequate training.
