The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election as he has barred him.
Delivering a speech Sir Keir said today is an “important day” and welcomed the equalities watchdog’s decision to lift the party out of two years of special measures past failings on antisemitism.
The Labour leader said that the party is now “unrecognisable” from its time when Corbyn was in charge.
The Labour leader said in his speech, “Let me be very clear, Jeremy Corbyn will not stand at the next general election as a Labour Party candidate.
“What I said about the party changing I meant and we are not going back.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was monitoring the Labour Party as they ruled in 2020 that they had acted unlawfully with acts of harassment and discrimination under Corbyn.
On Wednesday the watchdog ruled that under Sir Keir the Labour Party has improved and their complaints and training procedures are now in place to protect future members.
He said, “I understand that some people won’t like the changes we’ve made but I say this with all candour, the Labour Party is unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back.
“It will never again be a party captured by narrow interest, it will never again lose sight of its purpose or its morals. And it will never again be brought to its knees by racism or bigotry.
“If you don’t like that, if you don’t like the changes we’ve made, I say the door is open and you can leave.”
He was then asked if he will proscribe the Momentum campaign who back Corbyn, he said he does not have the power to do so.
Momentum responded to Sir Keir stating, “It should be for Labour members in Islington North to decide their candidate – that is their democratic right.”
Toynbee Hall by the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl introduced Sir Keir to the audience and said that before the new Labour leader “not too long ago,” it would “simply would be an impossibility.”
She added, “At the next election I believe all British Jews will once again be free to vote according to their political persuasion rather than out of fear.”
However, she offered a “note of caution” that there are still “issues with antisemitism, particularly within the grassroots” within the Labour Party.
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