Starmer is passing the antisemitism test as surely as his predecessor failed it

Keir Starmer wasted no time in declaring that Jeremy Corbyn would not have the Labour whip restored today—ensuring the announcement was made before he could be goaded on the issue of antisemitism by Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions. The Labour leader was quick and decisive in refusing to let his predecessor back into the parliamentary fold even though the party’s ruling body had ended Corbyn’s suspension from party membership. He was also right.

This is not just a question of process, although the disciplinary procedures are still caught up in the toxic politics of the Labour Party. It is also one of morality. Starmer has promised that Labour is under “A New Leadership” and his handling of antisemitism needs to demonstrate a change in values as well as style. He struck the right tone when he described the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report—which found that Labour had overseen “unlawful” harassment and discrimination during Corbyn’s years in charge—as a “day of shame.” The party that is supposed to champion fairness allowed a form of prejudice that had been pushed to the fringes of society back into the mainstream of politics, with appalling consequences. Jewish MPs were effectively bullied out and Jewish voters left feeling genuinely frightened at the last general election about the prospect of a Labour government.

Yet Corbyn claimed the issue had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party.” This week the former leader suggested he had not wanted to “belittle concerns” about antisemitism and insisted he regretted “the pain this issue has caused the Jewish community.” But he did not apologise or accept any real responsibility for the prejudice that had been allowed to flourish on his watch. The Jewish Labour Movement described Corbyn’s statement as “insincere and totally inadequate” and warned that the decision to allow him back into the party would “embolden” those who agree with his “grossly offensive” remarks 19 days ago.

Starmer said Corbyn’s response “set back our work in restoring trust and confidence in the Labour Party’s ability to tackle antisemitism,” and that the disciplinary process “does not have the confidence of the Jewish community.” This is not surprising when the decision to lift the suspension was made by a panel of the party’s own ruling National Executive Committee rather than an independent body and rushed through at top speed. “I know that I will be judged on my actions, not my words,” the Labour leader tweeted, and he was correct.

Starmer faced a choice: he could either double down on his tough and uncompromising stance on antisemitism and risk further infuriating his party’s left, or he could restore the whip to Corbyn and create a sense of ambiguity about his own position. In truth, it is hard to see how he could have made any decision other than the one he did if he wanted to retain any credibility as a leader offering a fresh start. Having promised in the first days of his leadership to make it his mission to root out antisemitism from the Labour Party and rebuild relations with the Jewish community, he could not ignore its concerns. Withdrawing the whip from Corbyn is also the way to restore trust with the wider electorate.

Andrew Cooper, the former Downing Street director of strategy under David Cameron, talks of “10,000 volt initiatives” that cut through to voters and shock people out of their old assumptions about a political party. Tony Blair’s decision to scrap Clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution was just such a moment, as was, in a less substantial way, David Cameron’s photo opportunity hugging huskies in the Arctic. Both forced the electorate to look again at the parties and helped to detoxify their negative brands. Starmer’s strong stance against antisemitism has the power to turn around the negative perceptions of Labour that built up under Corbyn.

Left wingers are inevitably furious. John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, described the decision to deny the whip to his ally as “plain wrong” and said it “will cause more division and disunity in the party.” The Red Labour grassroots pressure group committed to “socialism without apologies” warned Starmer: “You have a fight on your hands.” One Labour source says of the leader, “He’s got a problem, he’s now got a big group of Labour MPs who hate him and will rebel at the drop of a hat.”

But Starmer is choosing the voters over his party’s left. Antisemitism has become a totemic test of leadership for him, just as it was for Corbyn. So far he is passing it as clearly as his predecessor failed it on every count.