Even after suspending Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer has a way to go to rebuild trust in Labour

Editorial: The former leader must give a fuller, more detailed account of the decisions he made on antisemitism. But Starmer has to account for serving in his shadow cabinet too

Keir Starmer has suggested his predecessor was ‘part of the problem’ (Getty)

It is sometimes asked why, given the state of the nation, the Labour Party isn’t more popular. While the party leader himself enjoys positive approval ratings, the party is still underperforming, barely ahead of a visibly decaying Conservative administration.  

The Equality and Human Rights Commission report into Labour and antisemitism goes a long way to solving that conundrum. Sir Keir Starmer’s move to suspend Jeremy Corbyn was bold, dramatic, and leaves no space for the Conservatives to claim he is hypocritically weak on antisemitism. The kind of leadership Labour needs is on display – but what an appalling mess. Not since 1931 has the party seen fit to treat a former leader in this kind of way, and, it shows the seriousness of the situation and the depths the party reached that it has become necessary. That suspension, and Sir Keir’s unequivocal acceptance of the recommendations, was a textbook example of the swift decisiveness needed to qualify as fit for government. It sends the clearest message possible to the party and the country that there is indeed zero tolerance on antisemitism.  

Ironically, though, these dramatic events do tend to confirm the wider public’s suspicion of the party’s innate extremism, at least in the recent past. The Labour Party, in other words, is still suffering from a toxic legacy of the past few years, on antisemitism and much else. The voters may trust Sir Keir, and be increasingly impressed by him, but they harbour deeper doubts about the Labour movement’s instincts, its unity and fitness to govern. That, in turn, is down to the failings of the previous leadership of the party. Sir Keir is seeking to put that firmly in the past.