EHRC publishes report on Antisemitism in Labour Party: three breaches of Equality Act and Jeremy Corbyn suspended

An investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into antisemitism in the Labour Party has resulted in a highly critical report, highlighting three breaches of the Equality Act and leading to the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn over his reaction to the findings.  

Photography by Chatham House (Flickr)

The Labour Party has been dogged by accusations of antisemitism for a number of years and with the publication of its report on antisemitism in the party, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has reported three breaches of the Equality Act by the Labour Party. Former leader Jeremy Corbyn has since been suspended from the Labour Party after he labelled the accusations “dramatically overstated” by the media and political opponents.

Created under the 2006 Equality Act, the EHRC is a non-departmental public body with the power to enforce legislation on protected characteristics such as age, disability, race and religion. Its investigation originated from numerous complaints made regarding the Labour Party’s failure to deal with instances of antisemitism within its ranks, particularly under the former leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

The report focuses on whether there were unlawful acts of discrimination committed by the party, and whether the party had handled these instances in an effective manner. The committee concluded that the Labour Party had broken the Equality Act on three counts in relation to harassment, political interference in complaints of antisemitism and inadequate training for those handling the complaints. The party is now legally obliged to produce a plan of action detailing how they intend to tackle the findings, based on recommendations made by the committee. The leaders of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust released a joint statement, saying the report was “a damning verdict on what Labour did to Jews under Jeremy Corbyn and his allies.”

The Jewish Labour Movement has argued that the report is long-overdue, warning of a “deepening culture of anti-Jewish racism” in UK politics as early as 2015. In a statement, they expressed the difficulty faced when highlighting accusations and having their voices heard:

“We were told that this racism was imagined, fabricated for factional advantage or intended to silence debate. Today’s report confirms that our voices were marginalised and our members victimised.”

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, spoke in a statement on behalf of the trust about the report’s confirmation of “the depth of the endemic anti-Jewish racism in Labour”:

“Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories and Jew hate are unacceptable in all walks of life, and certainly nobody expected it to fester in a political party founded on anti-racism, but it did. Today is not the end of this dark chapter, but an opportunity for the Labour Party to consign this shameful period to history, take responsibility and begin the journey back to any sort of morality.”

Since the release of the report, Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party over his reaction to its findings. The former leader has argued that whilst antisemitism does exist within the party, the scope of the problem had been amplified and “dramatically overstated” by both the media and political opponents. Although the report does not lay direct blame on Corbyn for failing to tackle antisemitism, it does highlight 23 cases of “inappropriate involvement” in the complaints process by the former leader’s office, which goes against Labour’s stated complaints process. 

The EHRC lead investigator Alasdair Henderson has expressed his belief that the failure to tackle instances of antisemitism in the party must ultimately be attributed to Corbyn “as the leader of the party at the time, and given the extent of the failings we found in the political interference within the leader of the opposition’s office.” Although Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an internal investigation into his comments, he will continue to represent Islington North as an MP.

Current Labour leader Keir Starmer has pledged his commitment to the prevention of antisemitism in the party as a top priority, but many have warned that there is still much to be done to tackle the problem; the Jewish Labour Movement has stressed that the Labour leadership “must now set out bold and decisive steps to radically change the culture of our party”. John Rentoul, chief political commentator for the Voices column in the Independent, writes that “it will take some time before the damage that was done to the good nature of the Labour Party can ever be restored.”  

The Labour Party is only the second political party ever to be investigated by the EHRC, after the commission took legal action against the British National Party in 2009 over ethnic requirements within its membership policy. Although the Muslim Council of Britain has also urged the EHRC to investigate numerous allegations of Islamophobia within the Conservative Party, the commission has announced this year that it will not conduct an investigation after the Conversative Party committed to an independent investigation into the allegations. 

Read the full EHRC report here.