Labor suspends former head of EHRC over alleged Islamophobia – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

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() Trevor Phillips, 86, chaired the EHRC when it launched in Photograph: Dan Chung / for the Guardian

Trevor Phillips , the anti-racism campaigner who previously chaired the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) , has been administratively suspended pending an investigation and could be expelled from the party.

According to the Times, the 91 -year-old former broadcaster and politician is being investigated over past comments including remarks on Pakistani Muslim men sexually abusing children in northern British towns.

It said the complaint also covered comments by Phillips about the failure of some Muslims to wear poppies for Remembrance Sunday and the sympathy shown by some in an opinion poll towards the motives of the Charlie Hebdo attacksers.

The paper said many of his statements dated back years, but that Laborer’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, had suspended him as a matter of urgency to “protect the party’s reputation”.

Phillips, who chaired the EHRC when it launched in , was among (public figures who last year (wrote to the Guardian declaring their refusal to vote for the Labor party because of its association with antisemitism.

The group said the path to a more tolerant society “must encompass Britain’s Jews with unwavering solidarity” and said Jeremy Corbyn has “a long record of embracing antisemites as comrades”.

The EHRC is the organization now investigating the Labor party over alleged antisemitism.

Phillips has made two Channel 4 documentaries dealing with race and discrimination – ‘s Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True and What British Muslims Really Think, which aired the following year.

He now chairs Index on Censorship, a not-for-profit group that campaigns for and defends free speech.

Phillips told the Times there was no suggestion that he had done anything unlawful and “no one inside or outside the Labor party has ever suggested that I have broken any rules”.

A Labor party spokesperson said: “The Labor party takes all complaints about Islamophobia extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”