Labour Party fulfils first task under Action Plan with discrete Antisemitism Complaints holding page on website, but CAA to seek clarification over apparent error
Under the Action Plan published by the Labour Party in December 2020, the Party had pledged that “A new antisemitism complaints handling webpage will be uploaded by 31 December 2020”. The Party has fulfilled this requirement by publishing a discrete Antisemitism Complaints holding page on its website.
The Action Plan was produced in response to the devastating report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that found that the Labour Party had broken the law in its discrimination against Jewish people.
The new webpage serves two functions. The first is as a holding page, reiterating that “the Labour Party is committed to implementing the recommendations [of the EHRC] as quickly as possible” and explaining that “This webpage will continue to be updated regularly throughout 2021, including for: [a] Further guidance for antisemitism complaints procedures [and b] Code of conduct against Antisemitism.”
The second function is to provide a portal to a “summary of statistics of disciplinary cases determined by the Labour Party’s NEC [National Executive Committee] in 2019,” although the document itself appears to be designed to showcase the disciplinary action that Labour has taken since May 2020, shortly after Sir Keir became leader, and the reference to 2019 in the title is an error. That being said, the document makes reference to case numbers in 2014-2018 but makes no reference to 2019 whatsoever. We are therefore writing to the Labour Party to clarify what this document is showing.
Campaign Against Antisemitism will continue to monitor Labour’s progress in fulfilling its Action Plan, implementing the recommendations of the EHRC and, above all, making the Party safe for Britain’s Jews.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has lodged a complaint against Jeremy Corbyn, holding him responsible for conduct that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Labour Party, as the Leader during the period of the EHRC’s shameful findings. Given the serious detriment that this conduct has caused, we are seeking Mr Corbyn’s immediate resuspension and, if the complaint is upheld, we will be requesting his expulsion. On the day of the publication of the EHRC’s report, we also submitted a major complaint against Mr Corbyn and other sitting MPs. These complaints are yet to be acknowledged by the Party, and they must be investigated by an independent disciplinary process that the EHRC has demanded and Sir Keir has promised but has yet to introduce.
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.
In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
