Mixed feelings as equalities watchdog lifts Labour out of special measures
► LABOUR LEADER Sir Keir Starmer has declared his party has “fundamentally changed” when it comes to antisemitism.
His statement came after the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it was no longer monitoring Labour — two years after a devastating report by the watchdog found that the party had unlawfully discriminated against Jews under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
The key pillars of the EHRC plan, adopted by Labour in October 2020, were a commitment to zero tolerance of antisemitism, setting up an independent complaints process, establishing a “high-level advisory board” to guide the party on issues of antisemitism, training for all staff, strengthening due diligence checks on candidates, and transparency about decisions in antisemitism cases.
The EHRC has now concluded that Labour under Sir Keir has satisfactorily implemented this action plan.
However, despite the Labour leader’s reassurances, the reaction from the British Jewish community across the political spectrum was noticeably more muted.
President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, who introduced Sir Keir as he made his declaration on the issue on Wednesday morning, praised the progress the party has made under his leadership. But she was also cautious in her assessment. She said: “The lifting of these special measures must not be construed as implying that the problems within Labour are over. We still see issues with antisemitism, particularly among the grassroots.”
Former Liverpool Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman, who has recently
rejoined the party after quiting over antisemitism, echoed those concerns. She said: “There are pockets of problems in constituency parties around the country. Liverpool is one of the areas where there’s a lot more work to be done.”
Dame Ellman’s comments come after her successor, Kim Johnson MP, was made to apologise in Parliament after labelling the Israeli government “fascist” at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism also dismissed Labour’s claims its antisemitism issues were behind it. It said: “The Party has not carried out disciplinary investigations in relation to more than a dozen complaints that we submitted over two years ago”.
Meanwhile, Labour Against Antisemitism said: “There still remain issues regarding antisemitism that cannot and should not be ignored.” That was highlighted again this week when the JC revealed a senior Party official in Romford, Essex, Vivien Burke, had posted “virulently antisemitic” content online but apparently passed Labour’s vetting processes to stand as a candidate in the local elections last May.
The recent Community Security Trust’s annual report found that 87 per cent of antisemitic incidents in 2022 that were politically motivated or linked to specific political parties were associated with Labour. When asked by the JC how Labour was dealing with those issues, Sir Keir said: “We will continue with the same robust approach because the changes we’ve put in place are fundamental, they’re substantial.
“The Labour Party has changed, and the commission would not have signed off today if they didn’t think it was fundamental and substantial. Wherever there is antisemitism, we will chase it down and we will deal with it in the same robust way we have done over the past two to three years.”
Mike Katz, National Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said the EHRC decision had not completely dealt with the party’s issues.
But he said: “I can’t pretend for a minute that there aren’t still lots of bad people who are either promoting antisemitism or, just as bad, seeking to downplay or deny the scale of the problem in the party, and that’s why we’ve got to keep pushing on.”
Explaining the decision, Marcial Boo, Chief Executive of the EHRC, said: “We were satisfied that the party had implemented the necessary actions to improve its complaints, recruitment, training and other procedures to the legal standards required.
“This will help to protect current and future Labour Party members from discrimination and harassment.”
I can’t pretend there aren’t still bad people promoting antisemitism