The damage of the Corbyn era can never be undone

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has given the Labour Party a clean bill of health. Britain’s equalities watchdog has judged that my party is once again a safe and welcoming political home for Jewish people. This is an important moment and a great relief for the entire Jewish community.

We all understand that taking the Labour Party out of special measures does not mean that antisemitism has been completely eradicated from the party. When you allow anti-Jewish hatred to move from the fringes to the mainstream of an organisation, it takes a determined effort to expel this cancer.

And it takes time and patience to rebuild trust with a Jewish community that was understandably horrified by the way in which a great political party had so quickly become infected with antisemitism. It takes time to heal that hurt.

However, if you had told me in the dark moments of October 2020 – when the EHRC’s damning report was first published – that we would have changed so much in just over two years, then I would have said you were kidding yourself. My experience battling the hard-left militant group in the 1980s led me to believe that we needed five to 10 years to rid ourselves of antisemitism. Today, I am proud to admit that I was wrong.

From when he was first declared leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer has been determined to show by his actions that he will tear out this racism from the heart of the party.

With a zero-tolerance approach led from the top, we have reformed the party’s complaints system and set up an independent and transparent process. We have cleared the backlog of complaints, now acting promptly on allegations of racism and expelling those responsible. And the Jewish Labour Movement, of which I am proud to be the parliamentary chair, has provided antisemitism training for all Labour MPs, councillors and thousands of activists who hold key roles in local constituency parties.

Inevitably, Jeremy Corbyn’s position has been brought into question yet again by today’s news. So Starmer was right to confirm that Corbyn would not be a Labour Party candidate at the next general election.

Corbyn has been the master of his own destiny. His stubborn refusal to accept his role in allowing antisemitism to flourish, and his assertion that his opponents within the party had exaggerated the issue means, to my mind, he remains part of the problem and not the solution.

The Labour Party has fundamentally changed under Starmer. This is not just because of a zero tolerance approach concerning anti-Jewish hatred. On the economy, we want to achieve prosperity and growth by working with business, not against it. As patriots, we want to be at the centre of Nato tackling global challenges, not merely protesting from the sidelines. The party has moved on, and so has the country.

Jeremy Corbyn can no longer claim the privilege of representing the modern, tolerant and outward looking party that we are today. He is a relic of yesterday.

Of course the damage of the Corbyn era can never be undone, but today we can proudly say that it will never be repeated.

Dame Margaret Eve Hodge, Lady Hodge, DBE has served as the MP for Barking since 1994