A suspension too far?

Southport journalist Martin Hovden writes: I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel great unease at the suspension of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Yes, we are all against anti-semitism, that goes without saying - but why do I get the feeling that current leader Keir Starmer is cynically using the issue to boost his image as a tough, no-nonsense leader.

No matter what your view, Jeremy Corbyn was a breath of fresh air and extremely popular with ordinary people throughout the country, disillusioned with the current political scene. He dramatically boosted Labour membership. He re-introduced COMPASSION into our political dialogue.

He attracted thousands of people to our seafront when he came to Southport to support the town's Labour candidate Liz Savage last year.



Just a thought, but why wasn't Tony Blair suspended after keeping his best mate American President George W Bush happy by taking the UK into war with Iraq – based on dodgy dossiers.

One law for the right, another for the left?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never been a member of any political party, and as a floating voter I've supported all three main parties over the last 50 years.

He can't have been that good, they still lost the election.

Corbyn was leader whilst all this happened, and he failed to deal with the issue, leaving it to Starmer clean up his mess.

When you are leader then the buck stops with you, as blundering Boris is discovering with all his governement disasters.

I don't believe that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-semite himself, but under his leadership complaint after complaint was made about anti-semitic activity within the party and he dismissed it as nothing and had Shami Chakrabarti whitewash it under the guise of an "investigation". As Labour leader the buck stopped with Corbyn.

That it why Starmer had to suspend him and withdraw the whip. It's not a witch hunt, it's not factional in-fighting, it's simply how you deal with such a serious matter which breaks the rules of membership of the party. Other high profile figures within the party who either made anti-semitic statements themselves or supported those who did so should also find themselves suspended and some should be expelled from the party.

I've no time for the "Poor Jeremy Corbyn, he's such a nice man" hand-wringers. Nice men don't sit back and allow vile and hateful anti-semitic bile and threats to be made by members of the party which they lead.

Corbyn also presided over some pretty nasty goings on by Momentum. The Birkenhead constituency suffered particularly from their bully boy tactics.
It would be easy to dismiss Corbyn as an irrelevant back bencher but he still has a lot of support from the far left within Labour, indeed some posters on here have convenient memory lapses with regard to their support of him.
Blair(II) has his work cut out sorting that shower and I hope he's successful. If he fails to do so then Labour will remain unelectable for years to come and that can't be good for democracy in this country.