Keir Starmer shows leadership steel in barring Jeremy Corbyn from Labour whip as MP, and it could help the party to Downing Street

The Labour Party leader was responding to the reinstatement of Mr Corbyn as a member after Sir Keir had suspended him.

He is deeply unhappy at the relaxed reaction of his predecessor as leader to the report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) into anti semitism in Labour.

How the Labour Party handles problems, disagreements or unacceptable views within its ranks is a matter for the party. But looking in from the outside it is striking to see Sir Keir take an emphatic moral stance, and it triggers thoughts about his prospects of becoming prime minister.

It would be quite wrong to reduce the extremism of Labour under Mr Corbyn just to anti semitism, when he and his supporters had other repellent views, not least on Northern Ireland. Sir Keir was prepared to serve under a man who gave the impression of being an IRA sympathiser, and who certainly spurned every opportunity to denounce its terrorism.

Anti semitism should not become code for anti Israel. This newspaper is strongly pro Israel, as are many readers, but people must be free to be fiercely critical of that state. EHRC detailed cases that went beyond such legitimate criticism.

In Labour and beyond, some liberal minded people have overlooked Nazi-style cartoon depictions of Jewish people because the authors were Muslim. A parallel example of such moral confusion has been evident when left wing gay rights advocates have ignored the hardcore anti gay views of some Islamists because they do not want to seem ‘Islamophobic’.

Keir Starmer will have to battle powerful sections of his party if he is to neuter the hard left. He might both succeed and become prime minister in 2024 – Boris Johnson is hardly an impressive rival now.

It is not too early for people, including here in NI, who are concerned about such a future government to prepare for what it might mean, and even to see what political goals they can secure now but might not then.

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