No expulsion in 70% of Labour Jew hatred cases
ALMOST 70 per cent of cases heard since May by the Labour disciplinary panel that handles complaints relating to antisemitism have not resulted in an expulsion from the party.
Statistics published by Labour revealed that 287 cases have been determined by the National Executive Committee (NEC) Disputes Panel — with 82 per cent involving allegations of antisemitism.
A total of 68.29 per cent of these cases did not result in expulsion, though 20.21 per cent of these were dealt with by issuing a formal warning.
Eight per cent of cases were referred on to Labour’s national constitutional committee (NCC), which has the power to expel party members after a hearing. No further action was taken in 5.23 per cent of cases .
The revealing new statistics have been published on the Labour website to comply with the demands of the action plan set out by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, following October’s damning report into the handling of antisemitism under Jeremy Corbyn.
A new ‘Antisemitism Complaints’ section has been placed on the party website, with guidelines on how to lodge a complaint against a member.
Announcing the results, the party confirmed: “The Labour Party has been holding subpanels every week, sometimes twice a week, since 21 May 2020.
“Thirty subpanels were held in 2020. Twenty five of these subpanels have concentrated on cases involving a protected characteristic; for example antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism and other forms of discrimination,” it continued.
“Three have determined cases that did not involve a protected characteristic and two determined a large number of membership appeals.”
In an attempt to show that it was getting to grips with the backlog of antisemitism cases that had built up under the previous leader, the party claimed that the 287 cases heard since May 21 last year was more - in 17 weeks - “than in the entirety of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 combined.”
A spokesperson added: “In fact, it’s more than quadruple the total number of cases that were heard in 2017.”
Sir Keir strengthened his support on the party’s NEC after elections for the position of chair of the disputes committee took place on Thursday.
Parliamentary Labour Party representative Shabana Mahmood MP was
elected chair, replacing the pro-Corbyn former chair Yasmin Darr.
Unison representative Wendy Nichols was elected chair of the organisational committee and Usdaw’s Michael Wheeler was elected vice-chair of the organisational committee.
During Thursday’s meeting it was also confirmed that all election candidates would be made to undertake “additional due diligence” as a result of a further commitment made to the EHRC demands.
Alice Perry, a member of Labour’s NEC, confirmed the change in an article for the Labour List website.
She wrote: “Labour’s EHRC action plan includes commitments to undertake additional due diligence for candidate selection.
“There have been damaging incidents in the past where candidates were selected only to be removed due to previous unacceptable behaviour coming to light.
“Candidates and elected representatives are held to a higher standard than party members.
“The NEC agreed that it is right and proper that the highest standards of probity are expected.”
More cases have been heard in 17 weeks than in several years under Corbyn’