The U.K. Labour Party will set up an independent inquiry into anti-Semitism within the party, party leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Guardian Friday, following a political uproar and the suspension of two prominent party figures in as many days over comments deemed anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

The inquiry is to be led by Shami Chakrabarti, former head of the rights group Liberty, who will report back to Corbyn in two months after reaching out to the Jewish community and others on how best to address anti-Semitism.

Corbyn, who had insisted that Labour has no racism or anti-Semitism problem, also said that a newly formed "code of conduct on anti-Semitism and other forms of racism" would be proposed at Labour's national executive committee next month, to included "initial guidance on acceptable behavior and use of language."

The Guardian described Corbyn as "defiant" in his interview, during which he stated that "Labour is an anti-racist party to its core and has a long and proud history of standing against racism, including anti-Semitism. I have campaigned against racism all my life and the Jewish community has been at the heart of the Labour party and progressive politics in Britain for more than 100 years."

Corbyn and his Labour party have faced accusations of anti-Semitism for some time, but recently received attention over comments made by MP Naz Shah who suggested that the state of Israel should be relocated to the United States and compared Israeli policy toward Palestinians to that of Nazi Germany's Adolf Hilter during the Holocaust.

Shah was suspended from the party on Wednesday as a result of her comments.

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone then came under fire when he attempted to defend his colleague by claiming that Hitler was initially a supporter of Zionism, and was suspended from the party himself.

Earlier on Friday, Livingstone doubled down on his claims, and told the British daily that he would use the 1983 book "Zionism in the Age of the Dictators" by American Marxist Lenni Brenner to fight his suspension and defend his claim that Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism "before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews."