Starmer: Corbyn could face expulsion from Labour

“That is why appropriate action was taken yesterday by the general secretary in suspending Jeremy Corbyn. That’s the right action – very difficult action, but the right action, which I fully support.”

Then asked if possible disciplinary action against Corbyn could include expulsion, the Labour leader said: “Yes, people have been expelled from the Labour Party.”

Sir Keir also revealed that of 827 cases connected to antisemitism dealt with since he took over as leader in April, a third had been kicked out of the party.

Ruling himself out of the process that would decide the future of the former Labour leader in the party, he added: “But it’s not for me to say what process should be followed, that’s for the general secretary, or what sanction is in order. I don’t want a civil war in the Labour Party. I don’t think there’s any need for one. I want to unite the party. But I’m not going to renege on my commitment to root out antisemitism.”

Meanwhile, it emerged Sir Keir had made it clear to Mr Corbyn that he expected the former leader to respect the findings of the damning report into the party’s handling of antisemitism at a meeting held the evening before it was made public.

And an email sent to every Constituency Labour Party (CLP)  – including the former Labour leader’s Islington North group – from General Secretary David Evans on Wednesday also warned that failure to accept the findings of EHRC report would result in disciplinary action.

The message, in which Mr Evans repeated Sir Keir’s insistence that this was a “day of shame” for Labour -  reminded all members of their “obligations” under the party’s   code of conduct “in line with our zero tolerance approach to antisemitism.”

Another stern email sent early on Thursday warned MPs and councillors not to discuss the report publically unless they had been given prior approval from the leadership.

One senior party figure said Mr Corbyn’s decision to release a statement on Facebook at 10.36 am on Thursday - while Sir Keir was answering questions from the media following the release of EHRC report at 10am - could be viewed as a further attempt both to “undermine” the 130-page document and an attempt to “embarrass Keir” at a crucial time.

It has emerged that Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner met Mr Corbyn and his team on Wednesday, when they discussed their plans for responding to the report.

Sir Keir – who had been one of the few senior party figures to have read the EHRC report in full after it was sent to the party in July - made it known he was planning to deliver a full apology for Labour’s failing on antisemitism at Thursday’s press conference.

He was in no doubt that this was the correct course of action after the report ruled Labour was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination over antisemitism.

It had cited “serious failings in the Labour party leadership in addressing antisemitism and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints”.

According to the Guardian, talks with Mr Corbyn were “friendly and professional”  - with the former Labour leader claiming to have received assurances that General Secretary David Evans did not plan to take disciplinary action against him.

But after the report was published at 10 am on Thursday - just 36 minutes later  - Mr Corbyn released a statement on Facebook including the claim “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.”

Mr Corbyn was completing interviews with TV broadcasters in Crouch End, north London, when he learned he had been suspended by Mr Evans.

The ex-leader’s allies have subsequently said if Sir Keir’s office had shared his speech they would have modified Mr Corbyn’s statement.

Unite leader Len McCluskey later said Mr Corbyn’s suspension - which was ordered by Mr Evans and the party’s chief whip, Nick Brown - was “an act of grave injustice which, if not reversed, will create chaos within the party and in doing so compromise Labour’s chances of a general election victory.”

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell also condemned the move. But it emerged that the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs set up to push the left-wing ideology of the former leader were by no means united in their support for Mr Corbyn’s decision to issue a criticism of the EHRC findings.

BBC Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt reported that he had spoken to several members of the left-wing group who believed Mr Corbyn would have been wiser to have remained silent.

Many others in the parliamentary party and across the shadow cabinet supported the suspension.

One shadow cabinet member said this could be “a clause 4 moment for Keir” – a reference to the moment Tony Blair in 1995 over-turned Labour’s commitment to full nationalisation.

In an interview on Thursday, Labour’s deputy leader Ms Rayner said Mr Corbyn had “an absolute blind spot” on appreciating the scale of the problem of antisemitism. “I’m devastated that it’s come to this. Today should be about really listening, reading and taking in the report,” she said.

While she later repeated her belief that Mr Corbyn was a life-long “anti-racist” in an interview on Newsnight, Ms Rayner continued to support the decision to suspend Mr Corbyn.