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Starmer told to reinstate unfairly expelled Labour members or step down

SIR KEIR STARMER must take action to reinstate unfairly expelled members of the Labour Party or step down, left-wing activists demanded today.

The call came following the Forde report which revealed that anti-semitism was weaponised to attack people in the party for factional reasons, despite denials by Sir Keir and other senior members of the party that this was the case.

It also found “deplorably factional and insensitive and at times discriminatory, attitudes” among the party’s senior staff.

Activists from the Socialist Labour Network (SLN) said that the report, by QC Martin Forde, also revealed the party has a lack of diversity, tolerance and inclusivity, as well as a hierarchy of racism.

An SLN spokesperson said: “The report confirms that after Jeremy Corbyn became leader, the party’s right-wing bureaucracy pursued their own factional interests against the majority of the membership.

“This resulted in unfair suspensions, expulsions and smearing on an industrial scale.

“This is a shameful account of a party which is supposed to be the party of social justice and equality.

“Although Forde was commissioned to enquire into events that happened under the previous leader, there is no evidence that any of these failings have been addressed under Starmer — and they all demand urgent action.”

The group is calling for an independent investigation into the party’s lack of diversity and inclusivity.

SLN is also demanding urgent action to bring justice to all members of the party who have “suffered because of factionalism in the party bureaucracy” and to restore the parliamentary whip to Jeremy Corbyn.

The spokesperson said that the report reveals that there was “no basis” for suspending the former party leader, who was “punished for only saying what Forde says up front.”

They said that the report “questions the reliance of the party on the zionist Jewish Labour Movement for its ‘sub-optimal’ training in resisting anti-semitism and regrets that there is no role for the Jewish Voice for Labour.”

“Unless Starmer shows himself ready to act on a report which he himself commissioned then he should stand down immediately,” the spokesperson said.

“And if he fails to stand down, then the many thousands of people who joined Labour to support Jeremy Corbyn will take action on their own part.

“This issue is not going to go away.”

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