Indian-origin author Lord Meghnad Desai resigns from Labour Party over racism

Indian-origin author, economist, and peer Lord Meghnad Desai on Thursday stepped down as a member of the UK's Opposition Labour Party over racism.

Desai said he was forced to take the decision to revoke his membership after former party leader Jeremy Corbyn was readmitted after just 19 days of suspension despite findings of "unlawful acts" by the country’s human rights watchdog.

“It was a very peculiar decision to allow him back without any apology. He has been refused the party whip in the House of Commons for a few months, but that is a very lame response to a very big crisis. I have been very uncomfortable and slightly ashamed that the party has been injected with this sort of racism. Jewish MPs were abused openly, and female members were trolled. It is out and out racism," PTI quoted Lord Desai.

I can't go on being in an antisemitic party,” added Desai.

The 80-year-old author also said that he has no plans of joining any other political party.

Over the years, the Labour Party accused of anti-semitism, with its disastrous electoral defeat in the December 2019 election. The defeat was the fallout of the crisis.

Sir Keir Starmer has taken over as the new party leader. Starmer had come up with the promise of ridding the Labour party of the scourge and had suspended Corbyn last month after he seemed to downplay the very critical findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

(With PTI inputs)

According to the watchdog, the Labour Party had broken the law in its fiasco to tackle anti-semitism, or anti-Jewish, complaints and there were "serious failings" by its leadership.