Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension from the Labour Party: a move with few historical precedents

On 29 October 2020, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Leader between September 2015 and April 2020, was suspended from party membership and had the Labour whip withdrawn in parliament. What led to Corbyn’s suspension was his response to the publication of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s October 2020 report into the Labour Party’s handling of anti-Semitism under his leadership. The Islington North MP was not suspended because of the findings in the report, but due to a press release, which first appeared on Facebook, and in which he stated that anti-Semitism had been ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons.’ The Labour Party clarified that he had been suspended ‘for a failure to retract’ his words. Corbyn immediately criticised the party’s decision to suspend his membership and withdraw the whip, but later edited his original Facebook post to remove the above passage.