Jeremy Corbyn has stood by his claim that the “scale” of antisemitism cases in Labour was “grossly exaggerated” in a furious TV clash.
The ex-leader, who lost the Labour whip more than two years ago over the claim, was blasted by Labour MP Liz Kendall as he defended his stance on ITV ’s Peston.
Shadow Health Minister Ms Kendall called for him to make a “full and frank apology, which has never happened”. It comes as Keir Starmer suggests Mr Corbyn may be barred from standing for Labour at the next election.
“I’m afraid Jeremy only has himself to blame for the situation he’s in, because of his failure to apologise for what happened in the Labour Party when he was leader on antisemitism,” Ms Kendall said.
Mr Corbyn replied: “I have explained many times and apologised many times for the situation that happened in the party.
“But you will also know this, that I appointed Shami Chakrabarti to undertake an investigation into this and produce a report.
“And I accepted the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report, and the Forde inquiry indicated that everything I'd said about scale - evil as antisemitism is, the scale of it within the party was grossly exaggerated.”
Mr Corbyn was suspended from the Labour whip in 2020 over his reaction to the EHRC's damning report into anti-Semitism in the party during his premiership.
He had claimed "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media".
A later report by lawyer Martin Forde “thoroughly disproved” claims the saga was a “smear” or a “witch hunt”, but also found “both factions treated it as a factional weapon”.
Ms Kendall said last night: “He only has himself to blame for once again repeating that the issue of anti semitism, he says, was exaggerated.”
Mr Corbyn shot back: “As you well know, I've never said antisemitism as an evil was exaggerated.
“I’ve said the numbers of cases are exaggerated. You know perfectly well what I said.”
Ms Kendall said she was proud Keir Starmer had “changed the Labour Party”, adding: “He said that we love our country, that we're proud of our armed forces, we stand up for NATO.
“He has changed our party and saying we will root out anti semitism and people who think that the problem was exaggerated are actually part of the problem. themselves.”
Keir Starmer has suggested it is “difficult” to see how Jeremy Corbyn will get the whip back.
That would mean Labour stands a candidate against him in Islington North at the next election.
Mr Corbyn told Peston: “I'm a member of the Labour Party, I joined the Labour Party before England's men's team won the World Cup.
“I’ve spent my life in the Labour Party, I've done every job there is in the Labour Party and I think the members of Islington North Labour Party deserve that.
“Keir Starmer also promised that he wouldn't interfere in selections, that he would energise the democracy of the Labour Party. If that's to be the case, this is a strange way of going about it."
