Sir Keir Starmer says the party has changed permanently under his leadership and “we are not going back”.
Jeremy Corbyn will not be a Labour candidate at the next general election, party leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.
Mr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP and sits as an independent because of a row over antisemitism.
The former Labour leader had hoped to be readmitted so he could stand for re-election as a Labour candidate.
But Sir Keir said the party had changed under his leadership and “we are not going back”, adding that if others did not back him they could leave.
Mr Corbyn has previously declined to comment on speculation he will stand against Labour as an independent candidate in his Islington North constituency.
Sir Keir was speaking as Britain’s equality watchdog said Labour has taken action to improve how it handles antisemitism complaints.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission found Labour, under Mr Corbyn, had been responsible for unlawful discrimination.
But a report by the human rights watchdog said it was satisfied that enough changes had now been made.
Sir Keir said it marked “an important moment in the history of the Labour Party”, but he stressed it was “not the end of the road” and he promised “zero tolerance of racism and discrimination of any kind”.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Sir Keir said: “Antisemitism is an evil and any political party that cultivates it does not deserve power.”
Mr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir for saying, in his response to the EHRC report, that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been “overstated” by his opponents.
The former leader was readmitted to the wider party after he said concerns about antisemitism had been neither “exaggerated nor overstated”, but he remains barred from representing Labour in Parliament.
In December, Sir Keir said he could not “see the circumstances” under which Mr Corbyn would stand for Labour at the next election.
Labour was forced to reform its policies after a highly critical 2020 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). It ruled the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.
The EHRC has now said it is “content with the actions taken” by the party and will be winding up a two-year monitoring period.
The EHRC launched its inquiry in May 2019, during Mr Corbyn’s tenure, after receiving a number of complaints regarding antisemitism within the party.
Its report, published in October 2020, found Labour had breached the Equality Act by failing to provide adequate training for staff dealing with complaints.
The watchdog also said the party had breached the Act because of “political interference” from Mr Corbyn’s office in the handling of complaints.
Labour was ordered to draw up a plan to improve its complaints process, which it did in December 2020.
This committed the party to setting up an independent process to handle complaints, putting together a handbook for staff handling complaints, and improving training.
EHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said his organisation had concluded its two-year monitoring process at the end of January, following a final meeting with the party in December.
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