This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labour’s newest MP, Lisa Forbes, is “not a racist in any way”, Jeremy Corbyn has said after a Jewish group called for her to be suspended over interactions with Facebook posts that critics claimed exposed her as an antisemite.

The Jewish Labour Movement had called for Forbes to have the whip suspended and some of her new Commons colleagues were critical after a freelance reporter discovered the social media posts.

Corbyn and Labour continued to back Forbes, who won the byelection in Peterborough – a leave-supporting constituency – on Thursday. Corbyn reiterated his support on Saturday.

“She has apologised for the remarks that she transmitted through social media,” the Labour leader said during an appearance in Birmingham. “If there are complaints about her they will be investigated, not by me, but by our party system.

“She has made her position very clear. Lisa Forbes is a good woman. Not a racist in any way whatsoever.”

The controversy erupted four days before the crunch byelection, called after Peterborough’s Labour MP, Fiona Onasanya, was convicted of lying over a speeding ticket and lost her seat through a recall petition.

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Foster had clicked the Facebook like button on a video showing solidarity with victims of the Christchurch terror attack to which text was appended accusing Theresa May of having a “Zionist slave masters agenda”.

She also commented under a post whose author claimed that Islamic extremists were the creation of the CIA and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, writing: “I have enjoyed reading this thread so much.”

After Forbes’s surprise win in Peterborough, the JLM released a statement calling her a perfect example of how a candidate who has “endorsed racist material” and rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism could nevertheless advance politically within Labour.

“Ms Forbes will have to go far, far further than her statements at the weekend to demonstrate to our members and the Jewish community that she isn’t racist against Jews,” a JLM spokesperson said.

The Labour backbencher Jess Phillips tweeted that she could not be as “gleeful or proud as I’d want to be [after the byelection in Peterborough] because of how it shows that antisemitism is becoming normal in the party”.

A Labour source said: “Lisa Forbes did not make any comments herself or share any posts. She liked a video about showing solidarity with Christchurch victims without reading the accompanying text, which Facebook users know is an easy thing to do. She has fully accounted for this genuine mistake and apologised.”

Forbes has also said she “fully agrees” with Labour’s position on adopting all the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance examples of antisemitic behaviour. The definition remains controversial, with some critics saying it prevents legitimate criticism of Israel, its occupation of the Palestinian territories and its policies towards the Palestinian people.