There was significant political fallout across the country yesterday following a damning report into the Labour Party’s handling of anti-semitism under its previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The report, published yesterday by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, concluded that “unlawful” harassment and discrimination of an antisemitic nature had taken place within the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

The report by the commission, an indepedent publicly-funded body, found the Labour Party under Corbyn’s leadership had been responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act.

These were: political interference in antisemitism complaints; a failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints; and harassment.

The current Labour leader, Sir Kier Starmer, described yesterday as a “day of shame” for the party and vowed to put in place the report’s recommendations for changes “as soon as possible in the New Year”.

Following the report’s release, Jeremy Corbyn declared that the scale of anti-semitism within the party had been “overstated” by political opponents. But when he refused to retract this statement, Sir Kier suspended Mr Corbyn from the party.

Penrith and the Border Labour Party spokesman Dave Knaggs said that he had not yet had an opportunity to read the commission’s report, so did not feel in a position to comment on the report’s findings.

However, he did say he felt “gagged”, after being sent instructions from the central Labour Party on how to deal with the issue.

“I feel gagged because I’ve received a letter that indicates there may be legal implications if any group or individual speaks in any way to challenge the contents or the process of the report,” he said.

“I am very disappointed that Jeremy Corbyn was suspended.”

Mr Knaggs added that he understood it was the comments made by Mr Corbyn following the release of the report that led to his suspension from the Labour Party yesterday.

“I don’t know exactly what Kier Starmer would give for the reason [Mr Corbyn was suspended], other than he, in defending himself, clearly hasn’t accepted all the outcomes of the report,” Mr Knaggs said. “I’m disappointed about that.”

Mr Knaggs stressed that he was not in a position to comment on the report itself, not having had the opportunity to digest its findings.

“I’m not yet clear exactly on what the findings of the report are, so I am not in a position to comment on the findings in the report itself,” he said.

The central Labour Party was contacted for comment on this matter.

Conservative Party Carlisle City and Cumbria County Councillor Gareth Ellis said that he hoped the Labour Party was committed to “look at the poison that it’s allowed to seep into it” and take tough action to challenge any antisemitic attitudes or behaviours.

“It’s extraordinary to me. I could never understand why it became such a problem,” he said.

“Historically, antisemitism in this country was associated with ‘skinheads’.

“That isn’t what we’ve seen here. It’s not just a mindless, thuggish assault on Judaism, it’s been an intellectual assault on a whole swathe of things.”

“It became common in universities,” Mr Ellis gave as an example, “for Jewish people to be expected to denounce the actions of the only state that refers to itself as a ‘Jewish state’.”