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Labour is waiting for Corbyn to sign off key antisemitism measure Labour denies it is sitting on key antisemitism measure
(about 3 hours later)
The key outstanding recommendation made in the Chakrabarti report on tackling antisemitism in the Labour party is awaiting approval from the leader’s office. Labour’s leadership has denied that it is sitting on one of the key recommendations made in the Chakrabarti report on tackling antisemitism in the party.
The hold-up has emerged as sources confirmed that Christine Shawcroft would stand down from the national executive in June when new elections are held. Shawcroft was forced to resign on Wednesday night as chair of the party’s disputes panel after emails from her emerged questioning the suspension of a Holocaust denier from the party. According to a progress chart prepared for the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) by the outgoing senior team at the party’s Southside headquarters and seen by the Guardian, the job description for an in-house lawyer who would deal with antisemitism allegations is waiting to be signed off by Jeremy Corbyn.
The leadership has insisted it has been pressing hard for the implementation of the Chakrabarti report and sources have indicated that the outgoing general secretary had somehow delayed it. The apparent hold-up has emerged as sources confirmed that Christine Shawcroft, who resigned on Wednesday night as chair of the disciplinary panel, will no longer sit on the committee overhauling the procedure for dealing with complaints of antisemitism. She will also would stand down from the national executive in June when new elections are held.
In a BBC interview on Thursday morning, John McDonnell implied that the party’s former general secretary Iain McNicol, rather than Jeremy Corbyn, was to blame for Labour’s failure to introduce measures to tackle the problem. The leadership has insisted that it has been pressing hard for the implementation of the report. In a BBC Today programme interview on Thursday morning, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, implied that the party’s former general secretary Iain McNicol, rather than Corbyn, was to blame for Labour’s failure to introduce measures to tackle the problem.
The introduction of an in-house lawyer to deal quickly and appropriately with allegations was the main recommendation of the Chakrabarti report. According to a progress chart prepared for the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) and seen by the Guardian, the job description for the post has not yet been signed off by the leader. McDonnell said: “We are bringing forward mechanisms. They should have been implemented ages ago, but they will be now under a new general secretary.”
The chart does not show when the brief was passed to Corbyn’s team. A Labour source later denied that any one individual was being blamed. They said: “He made the point that, under the direction of the new general secretary, the party must redouble its efforts in taking on the scourge of antisemitism.”
Corbyn has made enacting the recommendations of the report, which was commissioned and published nearly two years ago, the first priority for the new general secretary, Jennie Formby, when she starts work after Easter. Several members of the party’s NEC were understood to be angry about McNicol being implicated, pointing out that Jennie Formby, the new general secretary, had backed Shawcroft’s appointment to the disciplinary role. They suggested that the process of dealing with complaints of antisemitism had been held up by “misplaced loyalty” to the hard left as well as incompetence.
Some MPs and party activists are shocked that Shawcroft, who is a director of Momentum, has been allowed to stay on the disputes panel. Ian Austin, the MP for Dudley, said: “Never mind resigning from the disputes panel, she should be referred to it.” One source close to the NEC said: “It’s disingenuous to blame this situation on the outgoing management. The power of the general secretary to suspend members and undertake disciplinary action was removed by the Chakrabarti report.
Speaking on BBC radio, Austin said a lot of people in the party were angry. “But some people, like me, are angry about the racism. And some people, in and around the leadership it seems to me, are angry about the people complaining about the racism, not the people responsible for it.” “Having to wait for explicit approval from the NEC, which only meets every two months, has helped create the backlog of investigations. It was Formby who as an NEC member voted for Shawcroft to chair the committee that deals with these matters.”
Johanna Baxter, who is a former member of the NEC, tweeted: “I sat across the NEC table from Christine for 6 yrs - sadly this is not unusual behaviour from her. I hope our @jeremycorbyn and @JennieUnite deal with it quickly. Stepping down as Chair of Disputes is not sufficient. Ignorance is no excuse.” Shawcroft was forced to resign as chair of the party’s disputes panel after emails emerged from her questioning the suspension of a holocaust denier from the party. While she remains a member of the NEC, however, she will still be entitled to advise on disciplinary hearings.
The other outstanding part of the Chakrabarti recommendations relates to appointing a panel of volunteer lawyers to assist the national constitutional committee (NCC) on questions such as the proportionality of suspensions and expulsions. Corbyn emailed the party’s 550,000 members, pledging zero tolerance for antisemitism: “Prejudice against, and harassment of, Jewish people have no place whatsoever in our party,” he said.
That is said to require significant changes to the role of the NCC. It is pending. Some MPs and party activists are shocked that Shawcroft, who is a director of Momentum, will stay on the NEC. Ian Austin, the MP for Dudley, said “Never mind resigning from the disputes panel, she should be referred to it.”
After one of the most bitter and turbulent weeks in the party’s history, the leadership is floundering to get on the front foot. Louise Ellman, the long-serving Liverpool Riverside MP, said Corbyn must take responsibility: “He should call on her to do the right thing, and step down. But I doubt that he will.”
In a bid to try to close down the incendiary row over antisemitism in the party, Corbyn on Thursday gave his first interview to a Jewish newspaper. But the left-leaning freesheet Jewish News declared his message, intended to show that he was ready to do whatever it took to stamp out antisemitism in the party, “not good enough”. Johanna Baxter, who is a former member of the NEC, tweeted: “I sat across the NEC table from Christine for 6 yrs – sadly this is not unusual behaviour from her. I hope our @jeremycorbyn and @JennieUnite deal with it quickly. Stepping down as Chair of Disputes is not sufficient. Ignorance is no excuse.”
Louise Ellman, a long-serving Liverpool MP, said the party was very vulnerable. “It would be a very good move if Shawcroft came off the NEC now. Jeremy might not have the power to make her stand down, but he could show leadership, and call on her to do the right thing.” The process of appointing more party staff to the regions to speed up responses to complaints and allegations of racism has also been delayed, it has emerged. An advertisement for a dozen extra staff was taken down, which Labour sources said was because it had not been signed off. The jobs have not yet been advertised.
Shawcroft’s influence on the NEC is reduced by her resignation from the chair of the disciplinary panel. She will no longer be in the NEC officers’ group, which is influential in the process of selecting candidates for parliamentary byelections. Peterborough Labour councillors had been complaining about the suspended candidate Alan Bull’s Facebook posts since he was selected last July. It took more than six months, and national publicity for the party to act.
Some MPs are starting to question the standing of the new general secretary, Formby, who was a Unite regional officer and is close to the union’s general secretary. Len McCluskey. On Wednesday night Shawcroft said she was “wrong and misguided” to have sent an email calling for Bull’s suspension to be lifted as she had not been aware of all the information in the case.
Ellman, who was at Monday night’s protest against antisemitism organised by Jewish community groups, said on Thursday: “She’s got to prove herself. I don’t feel confident. Her past history doesn’t give me any confidence.” Bull was accused of sharing an article on Facebook headlined “International Red Cross report confirms the Holocaust of 6m Jews is a hoax”, illustrated with a photograph of the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Formby has a record of being strongly anti-Israel and pro-Palestine. She criticised the appointment of the Labour peer Jan Royall to investigate antisemitism in the Oxford Labour party on the grounds that she had been a member of Labour Friends of Israel group and once visited Israel. Some MPs criticised the way the new general secretary was being made responsible for a problem that they feel starts at the top. Austin said: “The only person who can sort this out is Jeremy Corbyn. He’s got to show real leadership.”
Austin said expelling Ken Livingstone, who has been indefinitely suspended, and Jackie Walker, the former vice chair of Momentum, were minimum first steps. “He’s got to show he’s taking it seriously, commit the resources to dealing with the backlog and tell his supporters that it is unacceptable.”
The aftermath of Monday night’s protest, which was organised by Jewish community groups against antisemitism in Labour, has revived tensions in the party that had been dormant since the better than expected election result last June.
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