A devastating report published by the Labour Party has found both sides used anti-Semitism as a “factional weapon”.
The long-delayed Forde Report was finally released today - two years after it was sparked by the leak of an 860-page dossier.
Written by allies of Jeremy Corbyn and leaked as Keir Starmer took power, the April 2020 dossier claimed "factional opposition" towards the left-winger had hindered efforts to tackle hatred towards Jews.
It revealed messages between Labour staffers intensely hostile to Mr Corbyn. Some of them have since launched legal action over their messages being published.
Today’s report by Martin Forde QC, a barrister and former independent Windrush advisor, makes scathing reading for the party.
It finds the disciplinary process in the Labour Party was “not fit for purpose” and therefore "potentially prone to factional interference".
There was a “complete lack of any auditable database of cases” which left the party unable to collate accurate information about the number of complaints at any given time.
The number of staff “became completely inadequate to deal with the dramatic increase in membership that the Party enjoyed”.
Today’s 138-page report dismisses claims anti-Corbyn staff deliberately tried to lose Labour the 2017 election, or ensure the party “did badly”, to oust the leader.
But it says “many expected it to" do badly "and some had mixed feelings” about what a good result would mean for their futures.
It also finds a “handful of staff” created an additional fund that spent £135,000 on campaigns supportive of sitting, largely anti-Corbyn MPs, instead of Tory-held target seats.
The report describes a party so riven by factionalism that it was “dysfunctional” and not able to properly stand up for the nation.
It says there was “a vociferous faction in the Party sees any issues regarding antisemitism as exaggerated by the Right to embarrass the Left.” Even though today’s report “thoroughly disproves” claims anti-Semitism is a “smear” or a “witch hunt.”, “some still deny the existence and seriousness of the problem”.
It adds the leaked 2020 dossier “was itself a factional document with an agenda to advance”.
But the Forde report also adds: “It was of course also true that some opponents of Jeremy Corbyn saw the issue of antisemitism as a means of attacking him.
“Thus, rather than confront the paramount need to deal with the profoundly serious issue of antisemitism in the Party, both factions treated it as a factional weapon.”
Mr Forde found a “great deal of evidence of factionalism, so deep rooted that the Party has found itself dysfunctional.
“It has been spending more time occupied by factional differences, than working collaboratively to demonstrate that the Party is an effective Opposition, with a view to forming an effective Government.
“The result is an undermining of the Party’s effectiveness and ability to participate constructively in the nation’s democratic process.
“This is a failure to live up to its aims and values.”
Respectful debate “was replaced by strident, often coarse, tribal, and binary views” where “subtlety and nuance all but disappeared”, the report found.
And there was a “culture of intellectual smugness which exists at the extremes of the political spectrum the Party represents”, which “must now come to an end”.
The report added: “That is not to say that “taking sides” is always wrong.
“But rather that the taking of sides should be based upon reason, and should not be motivated by blind loyalty or irrational and entrenched opposition to a member, or leader, of a perceived tribe."
A probe into the leaking of the 2020 dossier by the Information Commissioners’ Office is still ongoing - with the ICO neither confirming or denying the possibility of criminal prosecution.
Separately, some ex-staffers who were named in the 2020 dossier are pursuing legal action over the leak which could reach the High Court.
The report said messages by staff about Diane Abbott - saying she “literally makes me sick”, is “truly repulsive” and is a “very angry woman” - showed “visceral disgust, drawing (consciously or otherwise) on racist tropes”.
The report said “there are serious problems of discrimination in the operations of the Party”.
These included “the undoubted overt and underlying racism and sexism apparent in some of the content of the WhatsApp messages between the Party’s most senior staff”.
The report added: “The persistence of racist attitudes amongst some staff, and the failure to prioritise a suitably robust response to those attitudes, meant that complaints were not treated with the urgency and sensitivity they deserved.
Hilary Schan, co-chair of left-wing group Momentum, said the report was “a damning indictment of the Labour Right’s attempts to destroy from within the Corbyn leadership, and with it the hopes of a radical Labour government for the many.”
She said the report had found “right-wing” Labour staff “worked to undermine the Party’s general election chances and its own complaints system, including on antisemitism, while engaging in racist and misogynistic behaviour towards MPs and members, all out of an overwhelming hatred for the Left.”
On complaints the report said “we consider that both sides are open to criticism” - and “the factional culture in which structural problems arose seriously exacerbated” the issues.
It said complaints staff “felt that they were generally under political pressure from LOTO [The Leader’s office under Corbyn] and their allies not to find certain individuals guilty of antisemitism.
“However, we have not received clear and convincing documentary evidence that there was a systematic attempt by the elected leadership or LOTO to interfere unbidden in the disciplinary process in order to undermine the Party’s response to allegations of antisemitism.
“In our view, the problem was principally a lack of clarity (on both sides) about how involved LOTO should be; and this was aggravated by the mutual antagonism between HQ staff and LOTO.
“During Spring 2018, the period on which much of the reporting has focused, LOTO staff provided input into specific cases after it was sought, sometimes insistently, by HQ staff, who refused to proceed until they had it.
“HQ staff say that they were forced into making those requests by persistent “offline” interference by LOTO which they wanted to bring into the open; whatever HQ’s motives, however, we find that LOTO staff responded to the requests, for the most part, reasonably and in good faith.”
Today's report was released after being signed off for publication by Labour’s National Executive Committee.
In March this year, Mr Forde wrote to Labour's general secretary to tell him the content of his report was finalised, and all that was still to be undertaken was "detailed checking for legal and factual accuracy prior to publication".
A Labour Party spokesperson said today: "The Forde report details a party that was out of control.
"Keir Starmer is now in control and has made real progress in ridding the party of the destructive factionalism and unacceptable culture that did so much damage previously and contributed to our defeat in 2019."
Jeremy Corbyn said the report had found the “secret diversion of campaign funds by senior HQ staff in the 2017 election” was “unequivocally wrong”.
The former leader said: “Whether or not that prevented the election of a Labour government, it was dishonest. In a democratic party those decisions should be taken by the elected leadership.”
He added: “The appalling behaviour that Forde calls out, including the repulsive racism and sexism shown to Diane Abbott and others, should have no place in a progressive party. Toxic factionalism is far from over - nor are persistent problems of racism and sexism - and action must be taken, as Forde makes clear.”
