National executive committee only considered a minority of cases before disputes panel because of time constraints

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Leaked Labour disciplinary papers have laid bare the scale of the challenge the party’s governing body faces in tackling antisemitism.

The paperwork, seen by the Guardian, was sent to national executive committee (NEC) members on 3 July, ahead of a meeting of the governing body’s disputes panel, which can refer members for expulsion.

The papers for the disputes panel, which all members of the ruling body can attend, lay out the party’s case against suspended members, compiled by party officers who then recommend sanctions to take.

Around 70 cases are believed to be pending. However, the papers reveal only a minority were considered by the NEC because of time constraints. At least three of the most serious cases of antisemitism were referred to Labour’s highest disciplinary body for possible expulsion.

Examples considered by the disciplinary panel included:

The founder of the controversial Facebook group Palestine Live calling it a “badge of honour” to be investigated by the party



A member claiming the Israeli lobby had manufactured the party’s antisemitism crisis



A member suggesting Adolf Hitler’s policy on Zionism “might not be mutually exclusive with his later actions”

Other cases were also considered that were not related to antisemitism.

Writing in the Guardian last week, Jeremy Corbyn said Labour staff had seen examples of grotesque antisemitism, including Holocaust denial.

I will root antisemites out of Labour – they do not speak for me | Jeremy Corbyn Read more

“They may be few: the number of cases over the past three years represents less than 0.1% of Labour’s membership of more than half a million. But one is too many,” the Labour leader wrote.

A Labour source said: “When cases are brought to our attention we are acting quickly and decisively, investigating all complaints and taking appropriate disciplinary action.”

Another party source said action would ramp up considerably within weeks. “The new code of conduct means we will not have to go to the full NEC disputes committee, but a smaller antisemitism subgroup. It will mean we have the potential to kick people out super fast, instead of waiting months for a full disputes meeting and just getting through 11 of 70.”

One of the cases detailed in the dispute papers is Elleanne Green, the administrator of the Palestine Live Facebook group. The group caused controversy when Corbyn was revealed to have been a member, as other members had posted antisemitic content.

Corbyn, who left the group in 2015, denied having seen any antisemitic content directly, saying he would have challenged it had he seen it.

Some Palestine Live posts include links to Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks and conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family.

In the papers, party investigators say Green had written to the investigating officers to say that she hoped she would eventually see the disciplinary action by the party as a “the much vaunted ‘badge of honour’ one day … I do hope so”.

The paperwork said party officers found that response “particularly troubling” and Green showed a “lack of interest in responding to these allegations”.

In a statement, Green said: “Everything I have ever said is consistent with the following avowal: I believe in equal human rights for all human beings and I wish no harm to anyone of any race or religion, all Palestinians and all Jews included, with no exceptions. I have never for one second wished any harm to any human soul.”

Green has been referred for potential expulsion to the national constitutional committee (NCC), the party’s highest disciplinary body with the power to expel members from the party.

Other cases considered in July included a member who is alleged to have posted on Twitter that Commons Speaker John Bercow had “Zionist sympathies” and that Adolf Hitler’s policy on Zionism “might not be mutually exclusive with his later actions”.

Another shared posts suggesting Islamic State had used weapons manufactured in Israel and said the Israeli lobby had “manufactured the UK Labour antisemitism crisis”. Both cases were referred to the NCC.

Later that month, in a leaked recording of a separate meeting revealed by the Jewish Chronicle, NEC member Pete Willsman said he had “certainly never seen” antisemitism in the Labour party.

Richard Angell, director of Labour’s centrist pressure group Progress, said: “It puts paid to the idea that Peter Willsman never saw antisemitism. It is time Momentum and Jeremy Corbyn press him – publicly and privately – [on] the need to resign with immediate effect.”

Willsman has since apologised for his comments. “Being an NEC member is in a separate box from being an individual party member. I was talking of my experience as a party member. But above all, I was asking for evidence that antisemitism is widespread and severe in a party of 550,000 members,” he told the Guardian.

Another member on the left-wing slate, Darren Williams, posted on Facebook after the meeting that he was disappointed that some members faced possible expulsions.

“The majority of NEC members are still readier than I would like to refer some cases to the NCC for probable expulsion, rather than offer warnings and training instead,” Williams wrote.

Williams told the Guardian he did not recall whether his comment related to the antisemitism cases. “In the vast majority of cases where officers have recommended referral to the NCC, I have voted to accept their recommendation,” he said.

Sources close to the NEC said the committee’s left-wing bloc had generally argued in favour of tough action on antisemitism, including Momentum founder Jon Lansman and Rhea Wolfson.