Jeremy Corbyn POLL: Should ex-Labour leader quit as MP for anti-Semitism 'failures'? VOTE
JEREMY CORBYN has been suspended from the Labour Party and had the whip removed for comments regarding the scale of anti-Semitism within the party. As a result, Express.co.uk is asking if you think the former Labour leader should quit as an MP? Vote in our poll below.
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Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party earlier this afternoon, after he claimed the party had “dramatically overstated” the scale of its antisemitism problem. The former Labour leader was responding to a damning report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission which found the party was responsible for “unlawful” harassment and discrimination under Mr Corbyn’s direction.
The former party leader hit back at the report and said he did not accept the findings.
He said the scale of the anti-Semitism problem within the party had been “dramatically overstated” for political reasons.
The former Labour leader then gave a press conference in which he repeated this and insisted: “I’m not part of the problem”.
The Labour Party immediately responded to his comments and suspended him from the party.
A spokesperson for the party said: “In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation.
"He has also had the whip removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party.”
Having the whip removed means he is no longer part of Labour within Parliament and now sits as an independent MP.
In response, Express.co.uk is asking its readers whether you think Mr Corbyn should step down as an MP?
JUST IN: Corbyn SUSPENDED from Labour after saying anti-Semitism 'overstated'
The former Labour leader has said he will not quit the party.
Mr Corbyn said he is “proud to be a member of the Labour Party” when he joined when he was 16.
Labour MP Harriet Harman, chair of the human rights committee, has said she backs the move to suspend Mr Corbyn from the party.
She wrote on Twitter: “This is the right thing to do.
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“If you say the AS [anti-Semitism] exaggerated for factional reasons you minimise it and are, as Keir Starmer says, part of the problem.”
Keir Starmer, the new leader of the Labour Party, said the publication of the report had brought “a day of shame” for the party.
He vowed to overturn Labour’s culture and promised to implement the recommendations of the report “as soon as possible in the New Year”.
He said in a statement: "And 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 antisemitism 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."