Shami Chakrabarti has taken her seat in the House of Lords in a cloud of controversy.
She will take the name Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington and will sit on the Labour benches, last night swearing the oath of allegiance to the Queen.
Last month CUFI raised the fact that Labour’s peerage for Shami Chakrabarti undermines the anti-Semitism enquiry that she headed just weeks earlier.
Controversy first happened when Baroness Chakrabarti joined the Labour party on the day she was chosen to head up the “independent inquiry” into anti-Semitism in the Labour party.
The controversy continued when Baroness Chakrabarti released a report that avoided criticising Jeremy Corbyn and effectively whitewashed the problem of anti-Semitism within the party.
Her independence was further questioned during the Parliamentary committee panel hearing, which Jeremy Corbyn was being questioned about anti-Semitism. During the hearing Baroness Chakrabarti sat directly behind Mr Corbyn, passed him notes to help him answer questions (something she was told off for doing) and made multiple gestures and expressions showing she was on Corbyn’s side.
If she is so independent, why was she acting as a defence attorney for Mr Corbyn, the person who was “on trial” in this situation?
Further undermining the anti-Semitism report was when it was revealed last month that Jeremy Corbyn was offering her a peerage. A peerage she accepted and yesterday she was sworn in to the House of Lords.
Baroness Chakrabarti now represents the Labour Party in the Upper Chamber. And on top of this, as a Labour peer, she is now eligible to join Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet, a place where only Corbyn’s most trusted allies reside.
