British Jewry’s representative body has criticized the decision by UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to recommend a peerage for the author of a controversial party report into anti-Semitism, calling it “beyond disappointing”, and warning it raises questions about the impartiality of the investigation.
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A spokesperson for Corbyn said: “Shami Chakrabarti shares Jeremy’s ambition for reform of the House of Lords”.
Chakrabarti, who stood down as director of the human rights pressure group Liberty in January, accepted her appointment as a lawmaker, saying: “I am honored to accept Jeremy Corbyn’s challenge and opportunity to help hold the government to account”.
But he added: “I wasn’t aware, I wasn’t consulted on whether Shami was going in. I didn’t know that we’d provided citations for this particular round, and I do think it’s a mistake”, Watson said.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews says that Chakrabarti’s nomination served to compromise the independence of the inquiry.
“We were told that this was an independent inquiry and if it transpires that Shami Chakrabarti was offered her peerage before she was appointed or during the time she was appointed to conduct that inquiry then we needed to have been told”. “The report, which was weak in several areas, now seems to have been rewarded with an honour”, the group’s vice president Marie van der Zyl told the Guardian.
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Home Affairs Committee and an MP since 1987, said the peerage did raise questions about the inquiry, and argued she was in “the wrong House”.
Corbyn’s decision to nominate Chakrabarti has been attacked for numerous other reasons.
The Chief Rabbi has criticised Shami Chakrabarti’s appointment to the House of Lords as a Labour peer.
Ms Chakrabarti receives a life peerage.
Miss Chakrabarti, a divorced mother of one, has previously refused to deny that Mr Corbyn had offered to nominate her for a peerage.
“This is a risky moment for our country and we share vital human rights values that need defending more than ever before in my lifetime”, she added.
A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn praised Chakrabarti’s “legal and campaigning skills, and the trust that she has gained”.
The move has already raised eyebrows, with some suggesting that it was not appropriate for her to be elevated to the Lords after having carried out the inquiry, which found that Labour was not “overrun” by a problem of anti-Semitism. In the list published on Thursday, Cameron nominated a number of his political allies for peerages, including Indian-origin Conservative party donor Jitesh Gadhia, a former senior managing director at USA private equity firm Blackstone.
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In David Cameron’s resignation honours he showered awards and peerages on 59 aides, allies and Tory donors. Tristam Hunt swapped his celebrity historian status for the Labour education brief, Gloria de Piero arrived from GMTV along with former breakfast presenter Esther McVey, who lost her seat past year.
