Jeremy Corbyn has come off far worse than Keir Starmer in this Labour spat

The current Labour leader is accused of weakness in dealing with his predecessor. John Rentoul isn’t convinced

Keir Starmer pre-empted Tory attacks on Jeremy Corbyn’s readmission to Labour (Reuters TV)

One of the tests of a leader is that they act decisively when they have the chance to secure the result they want. But another test is that, when things go wrong, as they are bound to sometimes, they act decisively to recover what they can from the disarray. 

Keir Starmer seemed to have failed the first test, when a Labour disciplinary panel decided to end Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension from the party yesterday. Starmer issued a carefully worded statement suggesting he was unhappy with that decision – although he couldn’t say so directly because as leader he is supposed to stay out of disciplinary matters. 

But today Starmer passed the second test, by announcing that he had decided “not to restore the whip” to Corbyn, which means that the former leader is now a member of the party again, but not a Labour MP. It was messy, but Starmer got enough of the result he wanted.