Formby refuses to show party’s EHRC submission to candidates
LABOUR GENERAL secretary Jennie Formby has refused to make the party’s submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) available to candidates fighting to replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader.
The JC understands that at a meeting on Wednesday, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy asked for the material — submitted as part of the equality watchdog’s probe into whether the party is institutionally antisemitic — to be shared with the four candidates.
But Ms Formby said she had been told to refuse this request after seeking advice from Labour’s external lawyers.
Ms Formby also insisted that former deputy leader Tom Watson and other members of Labour’s shadow cabinet had been offered an opportunity to view the submission last year.
One party source told the JC: “It seems astonishing the general secretary is refusing to share the EHRC submission from the party. One of the first major jobs Jeremy Corbyn’s replacement will have to do is implement the findings of the EHRC.
“To keep the leadership contenders in the dark over the party’s position is a joke, really.”
Other leadership contenders at the Wednesday meeting included Rebecca Long-Bailey and deputy leadership candidates Richard Burgon and Ian Murray. But Sir Keir Starmer was not present for the briefing, which included a run-down of the latest statistics on antisemitism expulsions and suspensions.
During the meeting, Ms Formby suggested the Labour leadership was now taking a tougher stance on antisemitism cases. Labour announced on Tuesday it had expelled 45 members over antisemitism in 2019.
But it is understood that some candidates expressed anger that the party was still receiving huge numbers of complaints over antisemitism involving members and that hundreds of cases remain unresolved.
On Wednesday, sources close to Mr Watson told the JC that, when he viewed the material last year, he was given 30 minutes to do so in a room with Mr Corbyn and Gordon Nardell QC, the party’s then complaints adviser, present and with strict instructions not to take any documents away.
Jennie Formby
According to the statistics released by Ms Formby, 296 members were suspended over antisemitism complaints in 2019 — compared with 98 suspended in 2018. A party spokesperson said the increase showed the party was “taking more decisive action than ever before, and more than any other political party, to root out this bigotry and racism”.
The Jewish Labour Movement, however, criticised the report saying: “After years of acting in bad faith and administering a broken system which fosters institutional anti-Jewish racism, the Labour Party should not be allowed to judge its own processes. “That’s why the Equalities and Human Rights Commission is investigating the Labour Party. Following years of asking for regular reports and statistics, it’s striking that it is only whist being investigated by the EHRC that the Labour Party has begun to do so.”
Further analysis suggests that in 285 out of the 773 recorded complaints of antisemitism, there is no clarity on what happened.
There are, for example, a further 57 people who received warnings from NEC or NCC, as distinct from “reminders”.
A Labour source said: “The party agreed with the EHRC that all correspondence would be confidential and we will of course not be breaching this commitment. We have also been advised by independent lawyers, who specialise in human rights and equalities law, that the party must not breach confidentiality by sharing correspondence.
“In any case, the responses to the EHRC largely consist of information on individual cases, which could not be published due to data protection legislation.”
It seems astonishing the general secretary is refusing to share the submission’