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Dame Louise Ellman: Labour party has been through 'time of shame' over anti-Semitism

Dame Louise Ellman: Bruce Adams/ANL/Shutterstock
Dame Louise Ellman: Bruce Adams/ANL/Shutterstock

A former Labour MP who quit over the anti-Semitism scandal today suggested Jeremy Corbyn's allies should be made to feel they had no place in the party any more.

Dame Louise Ellman said the party had been through “a time of shame” in which it had failed to “recognise its own racism towards Jewish people”.

She said new leader Sir Keir Starmer must institute a new culture that drove out racists, including what she called members of the old leadership.

"I want a Labour Party that is clearly anti-racism,” said the former MP, speaking on Today. "I would like to see changes so the people who were responsible at a leadership level for creating this dreadful situation are made irrelevant.

"That's what I would like to see. A party that they would no longer want to be in, that they feel uncomfortable in."

Dame Louise resigned from the party in protest after a string of scandals in which critics believed left-wing fanatics were inadequately disciplined for hurling abuse at Jewish people, including MPs.

She was speaking ahead of today's publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report which investigated claims that the party had become institutionally racist because of its failure to tackle allegations properly.

“This has been a time of shame for the Labour Party,” she said. “The anti-racist party that could not recognise its own racism towards Jewish people. Apologies are not enough.”

Barking MP Dame Margaret Hodge yesterday told of her her “relief” that the report was finally coming out .

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