Disgraced peer Shami Chakrabarti who authored whitewash report into Labour antisemitism tells pupils not to leave victims of discrimination to “stand up for themselves”
The disgraced peer, Baroness Chakrabarti, has given a speech on gender equality to the prestigious St Paul’s School in London, in which she said that pupils must not leave victims of discrimination to “stand up for themselves”.
Baroness Chakrabarti, whose infamous 2016 whitewash report into Labour antisemitism began with the words “The Labour Party is not overrun with antisemitism”, made a speech to pupils, alumni and guests via Zoom on the subject of “Gender Solidarity and Freedom” on 11th March, despite the controversy surrounding her invitation.
At the end of the session, she took questions from the audience, but she and the host did not present any of the questions submitted on Labour antisemitism or her relations with Jewish women.
The questions that were ignored included: “Your eponymous report on antisemitism in the Labour Party opened with the words: ‘The Labour Party is not overrun with antisemitism’. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, in its damning verdict, found that the Party had become institutionally antisemitic, including in the period covered by your report. How do you answer those who say that you accepted a peerage in return for whitewashing antisemitism in the Labour Party and that through that betrayal of British Jews, you prolonged and worsened a crisis that polling shows led half of British Jews to consider leaving the country?”
Questions on the topic of Labour antisemitism were ignored despite an assurance from the school’s High Master to one alumnus in advance of the talk that the matter of the event proceeding “does not mean that those listening cannot challenge her on her record in relation to the Labour Party should they wish to do so and it seems to me to be part of the Pauline tradition to enter into debate but also to question.”
Other excluded questions included: “What are your thoughts on hypocritical women – such as those that advocate for alliance with minority women but fail to do so – do for gender inequality?”
The hour-long address ended with the host inviting Baroness Chakrabarti back to speak again.
Shortly after publishing the findings of her “inquiry” into Labour antisemitism, Baroness Chakrabarti nominated for a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has offered to present a session to pupils on antisemitism, which the all-boys school has accepted.
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
