UK Labour party disputes chief operated lax anti-racism policy to oust Corbyn

UK Labour’s rightwing-dominated disputes head told his staff not to suspend members over anti-Semitism then attempted to cover up his actions, a leaked report has revealed.

The internal Labour Party investigation titled “The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014-2019”, obtained by MEMO, stated that between January 2017 and March 2018, blatant cases of anti-Semitism were not met with suspensions, because they did not take place “in person”. In some cases, it took 18 months to suspend a member.

The Governance and Legal Unit (GLU), which is responsible for processing complaints and is independent of the Labour leadership, was headed by staff known to be hostile to then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Staff allegedly misled the Leaders’ office on ongoing complaints, even failing to log cases with Labour’s Complaints Centre, despite claiming otherwise.

A ‘lax policy’

The leaked report claims that Sam Matthews, who served as head of disputes and later as the acting head of the GLU, informed junior complaints officers to only consider suspending members if the anti-Semitism had taken place in person, claiming that they had to use suspensions “sparingly”.

Matthews, who appeared on a BBC “Panorama” documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic?” claiming to be a whistleblower on Labour anti-Semitism, allegedly operated a “lax” policy for over a year, and then attempted to cover up his actions.

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Reports and complaints about disgraceful and blatant anti-Semitism, including online comments describing Jews as “vermin and the scum of the earth”, were reportedly not met with immediate suspension, and the offending members were only issued with “Notices of Investigation” (NOI).

The report conceded that a small number of suspensions that did occur during this time only took place due to the personal intervention of higher-ranking Labour officials.

It was also claimed that in some cases, serious anti-Semitism and holocaust denial dating back to 2016 were ignored or not investigated despite Corbyn’s office being told that investigations were underway.

However, groups have criticised the report, claiming the 860-word document is an attempt to discredit alleged whistleblowers, whose testimonies have been heavily relied upon during the ongoing Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into Labour anti-Semitism.

Matthews responded by claiming he did his “level best” to tackle anti-Semitism, which he insisted was “growing” under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.