Pat Regan: Labour Party – found guilty of unlawful acts by EHRC probe

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has served an unlawful act notice on the Labour Party after a lengthy investigation into antisemitism within its ranks.

Southport has also seen its fair share of Labour controversy, highlighted in previously revealing OTS News links:

https://www.otsnews.co.uk/anti-semitic-campaigner-revealed-southport-political-officeranti-semitic-campaigner-revealed-as-southport-political-officer/

https://www.otsnews.co.uk/kew-labour-councillor-actually-dismissing-partys-antisemitism-crisis/

One former Southport Labour candidate even admitted that there were anti-Semites in the party that needed to be “thrown out”.

https://www.otsnews.co.uk/whoops-ainsdales-labour-candidate-admits-not-remembering-words/

Subsequent to original complaints from Campaign Against Antisemitism, and further complaints from the Jewish Labour Movement, the EHRC launched its investigation in May 2019.

Labour is currently answerable for three breaches of the Equality Act (2010) relating to:

Political interference in antisemitism complaints

Failure to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints

Harassment

Caroline Waters, Interim Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

"The Labour Party made a commitment to zero tolerance for antisemitism. Our investigation has highlighted multiple areas where its approach and leadership to tackling antisemitism was insufficient. This is inexcusable and appeared to be a result of a lack of willingness to tackle antisemitism rather than an inability to do so. It is encouraging to see the Party’s new leadership has committed to implementing our recommendations in full. If the Party truly wants to rebuild trust with its members and the Jewish community, it must acknowledge the impact that numerous investigations and years of failure to tackle antisemitism has had on Jewish people, and take swift, sincere action to improve. Politicians on all sides have a responsibility to set standards for our public life and to lead the way in challenging racism in all its forms. There have been recent examples of behaviour from politicians of various parties that fall well below the standards we would expect. While freedom of expression is essential to proper political debate, politicians must recognise the power of their language to sow division. Our recommendations provide a foundation for leaders to make sure that they adhere to equality law and demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion through their words and actions.”

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/investigation-antisemitism-labour-party-finds-unlawful-acts-discrimination-and

The concluding report sets out a number of recommendations to the Party to incorporate in their legally binding action plan, which include:

Commission an independent process to handle and determine antisemitism complaints, as soon as rule changes allow. This should last until trust and confidence in the process is fully restored.

Acknowledge the effect that political interference has had on the handling of antisemitism complaints.

Implement clear rules and guidance that prohibit and sanction any inappropriate interference in the complaints process.

Put in place long-term arrangements for independent oversight of the complaint handling process, to make sure that standards are monitored and enforced, and adequate resources are in place.

Audit its complaint handling process to address any ongoing issues.

Measure staff and stakeholder confidence in the complaint handling process.

Publish a comprehensive policy and procedure, setting out how antisemitism complaints will be handled and how decisions will be made. This should include published criteria on what conduct will be subject to investigation and suspension, and what will be considered an appropriate sanction for different types of proven antisemitic conduct.

Review and update its ‘Code of Conduct: Social Media Policy’ to make it clear that members may be investigated and subject to disciplinary action if they share or like any antisemitic social media content.

Commission and provide education and practical training for all individuals involved in the antisemitism complaints process. This should be implemented fully within six months of publication of this report and, from that date, should be mandatory before any individual is allowed to be involved in any stage of the antisemitism complaints process.

Make sure that all members found to have engaged in antisemitic conduct undertake an educational course on identifying and tackling antisemitism, regardless of the level of sanction applied.

Engage with Jewish stakeholders to develop and embed clear, accessible and robust principles and practices to tackle antisemitism and to instil confidence for the future.

The Labour Party has been granted until 10 December to draft up an action plan to comply with the recommendations, which are legally enforceable by the court if not fulfilled.

After replacing Jeremy Corbyn in April, new Labour leader, Keir Starmer, apologised to Britain's Jewish community and vowed to accept the entirety of the findings from the EHRC's two-year investigation.

"I found this report hard to read and it is a day of shame for the Labour Party," Starmer told a news conference, repeating apologies also to Jewish members who felt forced to abandon the party in droves under Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn has since been suspended from the Labour Party after he downplayed the antiemetic report.

How will this official ruling affect Southport Labour activists who have been largely pro-Corbyn all along?

What actions will they take to ensure compliance with the EHRC recommendations?

Pat Regan

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Sunday, 1 November 2020

Labour Party – found guilty of unlawful acts by EHRC probe

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