Although David Cameron faced flak over his resignation honours list, it was Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to give the chair of his anti-Semitism inquiry a peerage that attracted the most criticism.
Today Shami Chakrabarti — now Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington — appeared on the Daily Politics where Andrew Neil. While she freely admitted that her findings were yet to be ‘fully implemented’, she also praised Corbyn’s ‘greater ever mandate’. When it was put to her that quite a lot of members and Jewish groups had suggested her report was a whitewash, she replied that she was sorry not ‘everyone’ agreed with ‘everything’ she said.
However, it was Neil’s questions regarding the timing of the whole affair that had Chakrabarti — who joined Labour ahead of chairing the inquiry — rattled:
AN: People respected you as independent. Would you not undermine that by joining the party?
SC: No, because this was a report for the party — about saying to my fellow members we have to look at ourselves in the mirror.
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