July 2020. Labour has agreed to pay “substantial” damages to seven former employees who sued the party in an anti-Semitism row. The party has issued an unreserved apology in the High Court for making “false and defamatory” comments about seven whistleblowers who spoke out in a BBC Panorama programme last year. The individuals had criticised the then leadership’s handling of complaints. Labour said they were wrongly accused of “bad faith” and caused “distress, embarrassment and hurt” by the party. The BBC’s assistant political editor Norman Smith said the payout was an “extraordinary moment” and underlined leader Sir Keir Starmer’s determination to get to grips with the shadow of anti-Semitism hanging over the party. In the July 2019 programme, entitled ‘Is Labour Anti-Semitic?’, a number of former party officials alleged that senior figures close to the leadership at the time had interfered in the process of dealing with anti-Semitism complaints. They also claimed they had faced a huge increase in complaints since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.
Jul 2020. Labour and Antisemitism
