After his suspension, Jeremy Corbyn suggested that his statement meant only that the public had an exaggerated view of the extent of Labour antisemitism: “The numbers have been exaggerated […] the public perception in an opinion poll last year was that one third of all Labour party members were somehow or other under suspicion of antisemitism. 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.”
These claims have now been adopted by his supporters.
The facts, however, are very different. The Corbynites themselves argued that until Jennie Formby became General Secretary in 2018, the party did not have the ability to analyse the level and content of disciplinary cases. Their claim has always been that they alone took antisemitism seriously and introduced robust new procedures. They still make that claim. But throughout the crisis, In 2019, Ms Formby told Labour MPs “there was no consistent and comprehensive system for recording and processing cases of antisemitism” before she took over. And that is what Labour told the EHRC.
How then can Mr Corbyn provide a figure for the number of members investigated for antisemitism while he was leader?
