Rumours abounded that Karie Murphy, Jeremy Corbyn’s former chief of staff, would back Rebecca Long Bailey for the leadership DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/GETTYSir Keir Starmer criticised the “baggage” of antisemitism that Labour took into the election as he set out his pitch for the party leadership yesterday. The shadow Brexit secretary, who said he was “seriously considering” running for the top job, made his strongest critique of Jeremy Corbyn to date. “We didn’t deal with antisemitism and that became a question of values and a question of competence,” he said. “Instead of being seen as a moral issue where you were judging what people had said, the question became, ‘What side are you on?’ It got tangled up. He insisted that Labour could win the next general election and pledged not to move the party to the…

Source: The Times December 18, 2019 00:00 UTC