Labour tried to have Party whistleblower prosecuted, and now Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington CLP debates rejection of International Definition of Antisemitism
The Labour Party tried to have one of the Panorama whistleblowers prosecuted, according to The Sunday Times.
Sam Matthews, a former head of governance and legal, was one of a number of former staffers turned courageous whistleblowers who featured on the BBC Panorama expose of antisemitism in the Labour Party and with whom the Party recently settled a defamation case.
It has now emerged, however, that he was also the subject of a criminal investigation instigated by Labour, which had reported him to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for alleged data breaches.
However, the ICO has now dropped the charges, having even interviewed Mr Matthews under caution, reportedly admitting that there was no evidence to substantiate the claims.
Mr Matthews revealed in the Panorama programme that he had contemplated suicide, such was his treatment while working at Labour Party headquarters. It is extraordinary that the Labour Party, of all institutions, could have treated its workers so appallingly and then, despite praising whistleblowers in every other industry, smeared these brave former staffers because they called out Labour’s own racism.
Mr Matthews and the other claimants in the defamation case against Labour were represented by Mark Lewis, an esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Islington North’s Junction Ward branch of the Labour Party, in Jeremy Corbyn’s local constituency, will debate whether to reject the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The motion, brought by a member of the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, also states that “We are deeply committed to opposing all forms of racism, including antisemitism. We are also deeply committed to opposing what we regard as false accusations of antisemitism.”
According to the JC, two years ago the Islington North CLP’s treasurer, Russell Smith-Becker, resigned citing Mr Corbyn’s “often tolerant” attitude toward antisemitism and worried that Labour had become “somewhere where antisemites feel comfortable and many Jews feel uncomfortable.”
On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.
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.
