06 August,2016 08:51 AM IST | | Agencies
The Labour Party has said that Corbyn’s recommendations for peers, including an Indian-origin rights leader, is ‘a mistake’
London: An Indian-origin human rights lawyer's elevation to the House of Lords as a Labour peer yesterday caused a controversy after the party's deputy leader criticised the timing of her nomination.
David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn and Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti, a former director of UK-based human rights pressure group Liberty, oversaw Opposition Labour party's recent anti-semitism inquiry and was nominated by Jeremy Corbyn for a peerage soon after.
The party's own deputy leader, Tom Watson, agreed the timing was "not great". "The timing is not great for the Labour Party. I wasn't aware, or consulted whether Shami was going in. I didn't know that we'd provided citations for this particular round, and I do think it's a mistake," Watson told BBC. Corbyn was also criticised for deciding to nominate a peer after having said last year that he saw no reason to recommend any when the system needed reform.
Chakrabarti is the Opposition nomination as part of former British prime minister David Cameron's resignation honours list, which has already been shrouded in controversy for being packed with his former aides, donors and friends who will receive knighthoods and other honours.
