UK Labour launches plan to combat antisemitism

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UK Labour launches plan to combat antisemitism

December 17th, 2020

Awake Goy

The UK Labour Party announced a new plan to uproot antisemitism from its ranks on Thursday.

The “Action Plan for Driving out Antisemitism from the Labour Party” came in response to a UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report in October, determining that the violated equality laws in its handling of antisemitic incidents under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

The party’s current leader, Keir Starmer, and Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said in the plan’s introduction that the EHRC report’s “findings were clear and stark: the Labour Party breached the Equality Act 2010 in terms of unlawful harassment and indirect discrimination towards our Jewish members. We failed the Jewish community, our members, our supporters and the country.”

As such, Starmer and Rayner said they “have made rooting out antisemitism our number-one priority,” and they plan to “change the processes, structures and the culture of the Party to ensure Jewish people feel safe to return to their political home.”

Among the ways Labour plans to make itself more welcoming to Jewish people and members of other minority groups is to establish an independent investigation process for complaints of antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination.

Unlike the process Labour had under Corbyn, its new leadership will not have any involvement in individual complaint cases to ensure there no political influence on the decisions.

In addition, external lawyers will be hired to advice on antisemitism hearings and the party will also move to address backlogged antisemitism cases.

“We will not hesitate to sanction those who breach our rules and regulations,” Starmer and Rayner said. “Social media guidelines will be strengthened and candidates wishing to represent the Party will undergo greater due diligence checks.”

Labour’s leaders also committed to increasing transparency in the process of investigating complaints.

The party plans to establish an advisory board with Jewish members, as well.

“This Action Plan will help us act decisively against antisemitism in all its forms,” Starmer and Rayner wrote. “It will hold us to the highest standards and ensure we neither miss incidences nor accept denial or excuses.”

The Labour leaders pledged to do the hard work to restore the Jewish community’s trust and change the party’s culture.

“Our determination is undimmed – and our commitment to getting it right is absolute,” they stated. “We will only consider this work a success when members who left our Party because of antisemitism feel safe to return.”

The EHRC, a statutory government authority, said in November that “at worst” Labour’s failure to tackle antisemitism in its midst could be seen as acceptance of antisemitism.

The report published on Thursday relates to 2015 to 2020, the period in which the Labour Party was led by Corbyn, who took the party in a sharp turn to the left of British politics, and attracted many hard-left, socialist, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic elements to Labour.

According to the EHRC, the Labour Party is responsible for breaching the Equality Act of 2010 through political interference into antisemitism complaints, failing to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints, and antisemitic harassment.

“The EHRC has warned that, despite some recent improvements, the Labour Party must do more if it is going to regain the trust of the Jewish community, the public and many of its members,” the authority stated, giving the party until Dec. 10 to draft an action plan to implement recommendations to tackle antisemitism in the party.

Starmer apologized immediately after for his party’s failure to deal with antisemitism in its ranks.

“It is a day of shame for the Labour Party. We have failed Jewish people… I am truly sorry for all the pain and grief that has been caused,” said Starmer, who held a senior role under Corbyn’s leadership.

Corbyn said that “the scale of the problem [of antisemitism in the party] was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

Following his reaction and his subsequent failure to retract them, however, Corbyn was suspended by his party. He was reinstated 19 days later.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report

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