Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned his successor, outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for once again stating that the party was “institutionally antisemitic” under his leadership, a characterisation Corbyn says the official inquiry into the matter never actually reached.
What Starmer said
At his last Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Starmer recalled his time as opposition leader. “We had just lost the 2019 general election, which nearly broke my party,” he said. “We were found to be institutionally antisemitic. I picked up our party. I turned it round. I made a promise to rip antisemitism out of my party and I did.”
Corbyn’s response
Responding to the comments, Corbyn told Middle East Eye: “The prime minister today falsely claimed that Labour was found to be ‘institutionally antisemitic’ under my leadership. There was no such finding, and Keir Starmer should have the decency to correct the record.”
“This is the second time in recent weeks he has made a false allegation about the Labour Party under my leadership, last time about an invented financial bankruptcy, to bolster his own dismal record,” Corbyn said. “Misrepresentations and broken undertakings are unfortunately part of a pattern under his leadership, leading to the collapse of public support that has brought his premiership to an end.”
Corbyn told MEE that Starmer was “now heading for the exit.” “But I will continue to campaign for social justice, human rights and peace. That includes uncovering the true scale of this government’s institutional complicity in genocide.”
What the EHRC report actually found
A longtime campaigner on Palestine, Corbyn stepped down as Labour leader after losing the 2019 general election to Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. His time at the head of the party was dogged by allegations of antisemitism, as Labour’s various factions competed for control and parts of the party sought to undermine his leadership.
In October 2020, the UK government’s equalities watchdog, the EHRC, published its investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party. The investigation “found specific examples of harassment, discrimination and political interference in our evidence,” and said Labour could have tackled antisemitism more effectively “if the leadership had chosen to do so.”
At no point in the report does the EHRC itself describe Labour under Corbyn as “institutionally antisemitic.” That specific phrase, which the report does reference, originated with Alan Johnson, who worked for the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre.
Prior to the report’s publication in 2020, Corbyn told MEE that the EHRC was “part of the government machine,” and that its independence had been “taken away” by the then-ruling Conservative Party. After publication, Corbyn said the report had shown that when he became leader in 2015, Labour’s “processes for handling complaints were not fit for purpose,” and that reform of those processes had been “stalled by an obstructive party bureaucracy.”
Later, in 2022, the Forde Report found that Labour staff members hostile to Corbyn had engaged in deliberate obstruction, including operating what it described as a “secret operation” to divert general election funds away from candidates loyal to Corbyn.
What Corbyn himself has said about antisemitism in Labour
Following the EHRC report’s publication, Corbyn wrote: “Anyone claiming there is no antisemitism in the Labour Party is wrong. Of course there is, as there is throughout society, and sometimes it is voiced by people who think of themselves as on the left. One antisemite is one too many, but 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. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated.”
The wider context
This is not the first time Corbyn has publicly clashed over how the party’s record on antisemitism should be characterised, a dispute that has continued to resurface periodically in British political debate, including in exchanges with other senior Labour figures over how the EHRC’s specific findings should be represented publicly.
Starmer’s comments came in his final PMQs before leaving office, as part of a wider account of his own leadership record following Labour’s 2019 defeat. Whether the specific phrase “institutionally antisemitic” is a fair shorthand for what the EHRC investigation actually established, or a mischaracterisation of a report that stopped short of that particular finding, remains a genuinely disputed question between Corbyn’s supporters and his critics, one this exchange has not resolved.
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Joe Connor is a UK-based reporter specialising in politics, public policy, and national affairs. He has previously contributed to publications including The London Economic (JOE Media Group) and Spotted News.
At The Daily Britain, he covers Westminster politics, elections, and breaking political developments, alongside in-depth analysis of policy decisions and their real-world impact.