CITY councillor Lynn Denham, who was a Labour parliamentary candidate for Worcester, said it was a “very painful day” for the party as former leader Jeremy Corbyn was suspended.

Labour suspended Mr Corbyn over his reaction to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into anti-Semitism in the party during his leadership.

Cllr Denham said: “It’s a very painful day for the Labour party for all sorts of reasons and I don’t want to offer any further comment at this time.”

Mike Foster, who was Labour’s first MP for the city, commented “about time” on Twitter following the announcement.

A damning report by the EHRC found the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.

The investigation found evidence of “political interference” by then leader Mr Corbyn’s office in the complaints process.

Mr Corbyn said he did not accept all the EHRC’s findings and insisted he had improved the process for handling anti-Semitism complaints.

He also claimed the scale of the problem had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media”.

The EHRC identified three breaches of the Equality Act relating to: political interference in complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism cases and harassment.

The party has been served with an unlawful act notice and has been given until December 10 to draft an action plan to implement the report’s recommendations, which is legally enforceable by the courts if not fulfilled.

The EHRC found 23 instances of inappropriate involvement by the Leader of the Opposition’s Office (LOTO) and others in the 70 files the watchdog looked at.