Britain's opposition Labour Party on Thursday suspended former leader Jeremy Corbyn in light of comments he made after a report on its handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.
"In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation," it said in a statement.
"He has also had the whip removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party."
It follows the report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which found the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.
The human rights watchdog found the party broke equality law in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints, with former leader Mr Corbyn bearing ultimate responsibility for the failings.
Mr Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader Keir Starmer admitted the report’s findings marked a “day of shame” for the party and said he was “truly sorry for all the pain and grief that has been caused”.
The investigation found evidence of “political interference” by then leader Mr Corbyn’s office in the complaints process.
The EHRC’s interim chairwoman Caroline Waters said there had been “inexcusable” failures which “appeared to be a result of a lack of willingness to tackle anti-Semitism rather than an inability to do so”.
However, Mr Corbyn said he did not accept all the EHRC’s findings and insisted he had improved the process for handling anti-Semitism complaints.
The former leader also claimed the scale of the problem had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media”.
