Keir Starmer has to allow Jeremy Corbyn to sit as a Labour MP – for the good of the party

Labour must be united in taking on the Conservatives, more conflict within the party will inevitably lead to a defeat in the next election

Covid-19, Grenfell, climate collapse, Brexit, and corruption are all instances that demonstrate there has never been a more desperate need for a united and bold Labour Party willing to hold the government to account and to make the case for a radical alternative to a broken status quo.

But we are a long way from that now. On the same day that we learnt that firms with political connections to the Conservative government were ten times more likely to win lucrative public sector contracts, Keir Starmer decided to remove the whip from Jeremy Corbyn.

In doing so he turned the spotlight away from the Tories and plunged the Labour Party back into civil war, drawing a frenzy of media attention and a flurry of fierce criticism from affiliated trade unions and tens of thousands of Labour members. His promise to deliver party unity lies in tatters.

Starmer’s decision came less than 24 hours after a Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) disputes panel – staffed primarily by allies of the Labour leader and selected by pro-Starmer Party officials – found no reason for Corbyn to remain suspended and reinstated him. This was not a factional stitch-up by the left as some have wrongly suggested, but a fair outcome of a suspension that should never have been made in the first place. Corbyn’s statement on the Equality and Human Rights Commission was not antisemitic.

In removing the whip from Corbyn, Starmer has engaged in a blatant act of political interference in disciplinary matters, creating a precedent whereby the leader of the Labour Party can in effect pass additional and contradictory rulings and dole out punishment to go with it.

This make-it-up-as-you-go-along, heavy-handed approach shows a complete disregard for the Labour Party’s processes and is also typical of the recent suspensions of members simply for attempting to discuss support for Corbyn. This is control-freakery to match that of New Labour at its worst, and a continuation of a long Labour Party tradition wherein members are seen as a source of irritation to be managed and marginalised by Party chiefs.

Yet without the campaigning efforts of Labour Party members there would be far fewer Labour MPs and there will be no chance of a Labour government in the future. Attacking one of your greatest assets is not a sensible strategy for winning elections, even if it gets you a few favourable column inches in right-wing newspapers – which of course will line up behind the Tories when election time comes.

As last week’s NEC election results show, the majority of Labour members want a democratic party that campaigns for bold socialist policies to confront the multiple crises we now face, and which Corbyn helped build massive popular support for across society. This is where Starmer’s focus should be, rather than the former leader of the party and loyal Labour members.

Doing the latter will not lead Labour to government and it certainly won’t lead to a much-needed change of direction for our country, which Starmer has so far failed to offer. Most immediately, it will not move us forward in the fight against antisemitism. The apparent obsession with getting rid of Corbyn feeds a media storm that distracts from action that is most likely to create positive results: instituting a new complaints procedure and rolling out political education to create a deeper understanding of how racisms function.

Jeremy Corbyn is not an antisemite, and by making him the centre of the story Starmer is doing a serious disservice to all those affected by antisemitism and to all those that need a Labour government. So as a representative organisation of tens of thousands of Labour Party members, Momentum is calling for the whip to be restored to Jeremy Corbyn and for the anti-democratic suspensions of Labour Party members to be lifted. 

We are also calling on Starmer to deliver on his promise to push forward with a transformative policy agenda capable of providing meaningful solutions to the problems faced by working-class communities everywhere, from unemployment to unaffordable housing, rising debt and racism.  

This is the only viable and just basis on which party unity can be achieved. Anything less will prolong a conflict within Labour that leads only to the party’s electoral defeat and the end of Starmer’s tenure as its leader.

Andrew Scattergood is co-chair of Momentum