Shami Chakrabarti, who chaired Labour’s independent inquiry into antisemitism, has declined to say whether she was offered a peerage by the party.

The former director of human rights group Liberty appeared on the Jewish YouTube channel J-TV to speak about her report, commissioned by Jeremy Corbyn after a spate of antisemitism accusations involving Labour members.

In her interview, Chakrabarti was asked by her interviewer, Alan Mendoza, if she would accept a place in the House of Lords and stumbled over her response, saying: “I don’t know whether I want to talk about my future ambitions at this point.”



Mendoza, the founder of the conservative Henry Jackson Society thinktank, asked more directly: “Have you been offered a place in the House of Lords?”

Chakrabarti replied: “You can ask the question and I’m going to evade it at this point.”

A spokesman for Corbyn said: “We don’t comment on Labour party nominations to public bodies or recommendations for political appointments.”

Oliver Anisfeld, the channel’s founder, said Chakrabarti’s refusal to deny that she was offered a peerage “raises certain questions – all she had to do was say ‘no’, assuming she hadn’t, but she was uncomfortable and evasive”.

Diane Abbott, the shadow health secretary, said she did not know if Chakrabarti had been offered a peerage, but said her work as a human rights campaigner meant she deserved a seat in the Lords.

“I don’t think it would be improper at all, Shami has an incredibly distinguished career, she is just the sort of person who should be going into the Lords,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“If you look at her record at Liberty, and you look at her defence of human rights and civil liberties, she’s exactly the right sort of person.”

Asked whether it might look as if Chakrabarti had been offered the peerage while conducting an independent review, Abbott said: “The ‘look of it’, in my opinion, is one of the most distinguished women in public life is going into the Lords, that is entirely appropriate.”

In May, Chakrabarti said she had joined the Labour party on the day Corbyn asked her to carry out the review, saying she wanted to have “the trust and confidence not just of the Labour leadership, but of party members.

“It is a judgment call, but I thought that was the most honest thing to do – to be clear that I was undertaking this because I do believe in the values of the Labour party and want to see them promoted not just in the Labour party, but in the world.”

Chakrabarti’s review found that Labour was not overrun by antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism, but made several recommendations, including that members should avoid comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis, especially when referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She also said epithets such as “Zio” and “Paki” had no place in Labour party discourse.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it had mixed feelings about the review, saying it had failed to explore the history of the link between the left and anti-Zionist antisemitism, and gave little detail on what anti-racism training for party members and officials might look like.

More questions could soon arise for the Labour leader over antisemitism in the party. Jan Royall has told the Guardian she expects to publish her full report of allegations of antisemitism at Oxford University Labour club, and then expand it to look at allegations at other universities.

There had been disquiet within Labour and the Jewish student community that the party’s national executive committee only released an executive summary and 11 recommendations.