Former leader Jeremy Corbyn to be ‘readmitted to Labour Party’ after suspension

Jeremy Corbyn will be readmitted to Labour just weeks after he was suspended for saying the scale of anti-Semitism in the party was “dramatically overstated”, it is understood.

Ahead of a formal announcement, a source close to Mr Corbyn said he would be readmitted following a meeting Labour Party’s National Executive Committee disputes panel.

Mr Corbyn had the whip withdrawn and was suspended from the party over his response to a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission which found that the party had broken the law in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints.

He had claimed that while “one anti-Semite is one too many” 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”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said concerns about anti-Semitism were not “exaggerated” or “overstated”, as he sought to resolve the dispute which led to his suspension from the party. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

But Mr Corbyn acknowledged ahead of a meeting of the disputes committee on Tuesday that concerns around anti-Semitism in Labour were not “exaggerated”.

He revealed he had given a statement to the party in an attempt to “clear up any confusion” over his initial response and a broadcast interview given in the wake of the report.

In a statement Mr Corbyn had said: “We must never tolerate anti-Semitism or belittle concerns about it. And that was not my intention in anything I said this week.

“I regret the pain this issue has caused the Jewish community and would wish to do nothing that would exacerbate or prolong it.

“To be clear, concerns about anti-Semitism are neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated’.

“The point I wished to make was that the vast majority of Labour Party members were and remain committed anti-racists deeply opposed to anti-Semitism.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.