Labour has defended its handling of allegations of antisemitism against members after leaked internal documents indicated it had failed to take disciplinary action in hundreds of cases.
The party’s system for dealing with complaints has been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
The shadow attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti, on Sunday pleaded with the Jewish Labour Movement “not to personalise” the issue in a confidence motion on Corbyn’s leadership at the group’s annual general meeting.
“My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn, because he is one person and he won’t be leader forever,” Chakrabarti told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
Members investigated for posting online comments such as “Heil Hitler” and “Jews are the problem” had not been expelled, even though the party received the complaints a year ago, the Sunday Times reported.
Out of 863 complaints, 454 were said to have been unresolved, including 249 where the party had not started an investigation. Out of 409 cases where a decision was reached, 191 members faced no further action, 145 received a formal warning while fewer than 30 were expelled.
Labour said that the figures, which were reportedly drawn from a hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on 8 March, were not accurate and that lines had been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents.
A spokesman said: “The Labour party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out of our party. All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We can’t comment on individual cases.
“One of the emails shows the general secretary’s office ending the practice started by former staffers of asking the leader’s office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This practice lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by [the current general secretary] Jennie Formby.”
But Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, said said that the report made for “shocking and depressing reading”.
“Labour members and the Jewish community will not understand how, many years on from the first concerns about antisemitism being raised, we have not got to grips with it.”
The documents were reported to show that a trade union official was readmitted to the party after being accused of sharing material saying “Jewish Israelis” were behind 9/11. In another case, a Labour official ruled a council candidate accused of describing Jewish MPs as “Zionist infiltrators” met the threshold for suspension, but then ruled he should not be suspended as he was a candidate, the paper said.
The chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, a charity which brings together major British Jewish organisations, said it was “simply impossible” for Labour members to ignore the degree to which racism had infected the party.
“These emails lay bare the extent of the corruption and those who have covered it up must be held to account without delay and relieved of their duties,” said Jonathan Goldstein.
