Jeremy Corbyn has been readmitted into the Labour party just 19 days after he was suspended for saying that anti-Semitism had been ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons’. The party’s ruling National Executive Committee this evening decided that a statement issued earlier today by the former Labour leader was sufficient to merit no further action.
Corbyn’s statement stopped short of a full apology, merely retracting the ‘dramatically overstated’ line and saying:
‘I regret the pain this issue has caused the Jewish community and would wish to do nothing that would exacerbate or prolong it.’
It was also a reiteration of what he had said on the day he was suspended. This went down very badly with Jewish campaigners, with the Campaign Against Antisemitism calling it ‘desperate’ and saying the statement ‘seeks to recast his comments gaslighting the Jewish community when the EHRC’s report into Labour antisemitism was released’.
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