The Labour Party broke the law in its failure to handle antisemitism complaints and there were “serious failings” by its leadership, the equalities watchdog has concluded.
An investigation into anti-Semitism in the party by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found it responsible for “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” and said there was political interference into complaints.
It said Labour broke the law in three areas: political interference in antisemitism complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints and harassment of those who complained.
Jeremy Corbyn said the scope of antisemitism in Labour was overstated
An unlawful act notice has been served to the party following the findings, which means the commission can recommend any necessary action to avoid the actions being repeated or continued.
Labour has until 10 December to draft an action plan to implement the report’s recommendations, which is legally enforceable by the courts if not fulfilled.
The investigation found evidence of 23 instances of “political interference” by then leader Jeremy Corbyn’s office and others in the antisemitism complaints process, our of the 70 files the watchdog looked at.
EHRC lead investigator Alasdair Henderson said the blame cannot be placed on one person, adding that “it went beyond the role of Jeremy Corbyn”, but he acknowledged the period they looked at “was of course during the time when Jeremy Corbyn was leader”.
“And as leader of the party, and with evidence of political interference from within his office, he does have a responsibility ultimately for those failings,” he said.
The former leader accepted the report but said the scale of the problem was not as large as stated.
Mr Henderson rejected that, saying there were “two specific unlawful acts” and 18 more in the sample given to the EHRC, saying “that’s the tip of the iceberg”.
Caroline Waters, interim chair of the EHRC, said the failures were “inexcusable and appeared to be a result of a lack of willingness to tackle antisemitism rather than an inability to do so”.
The report has been welcomed by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, who initially complained to the EHRC about antisemitism within the Labour Party, with its chair, Gideon Falter, calling it “groundbreaking”.
“It is the first ever finding by the EHRC of unlawful acts. It heavily criticises the Labour Party’s former leadership,” he said.
“The EHRC’s report utterly vindicates Britain’s Jews who were accused of lying and exaggerating, acting as agents of another country and using their religion to ‘smear’ the Labour Party.”
He added that the report shows under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership “the Labour Party became institutionally antisemitic” and said it “drove almost half of British Jews to consider leaving the country”.
Reacting to the report, Mr Corbyn said Jewish Labour members were right to expect the party to deal with antisemitism “and I regret that it took longer to deliver that change than it should”.
But, he added: “The scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party.”
Current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the report “thoroughly professional” and said its conclusions are “clear and stark”, adding that he will implement all recommendations “in full”.
He said he found the report “hard to read” and said it was “a day of shame for the Labour Party”.
“I am truly sorry for all the pain and grief that has been caused to Jewish people, JLM, to the people driven out of our party, and those driven out of parliament – Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger we are sorry.
“I can promise you this, I will act. Never again will Labour let you down, never again will we fail to tackle antisemitism.”
He said anybody in the Labour Party who thinks the antisemitism complaints were overstated does not belong in the party and that a zero tolerance policy to antisemitism “really does mean that” under his leadership.