Jewish Labour group accuses party of ignoring anti-Semitism complaints
2 min read
A powerful group representing Jewish Labour members has accused the party of failing to deal with a “vast backlog” of anti-Semitism complaints.
The Jewish Labour Movement also suggested a second inquiry into the behaviour of Ken Livingstone – who has made a number of controversial comments about Hitler and Zionism – is “stuck in limbo”.
According to the Observer, party sources have said a group of Labour members are planning to take legal action over the complaints procedure.
In 2016 Labour launched an inquiry, chaired by Shami Chakrabarti, into allegations of discrimination, which concluded that the party was not “overrun by anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism”.
However it did find that there was “an occasionally toxic atmosphere”.
The report also made a number of recommendations on how to tackle abuse and deal with future complaints.
Jewish Labour Movement chair Jeremy Newmark said: “We remain seriously concerned about what is now a vast backlog of cases involving alleged anti-Semitism that appear to be stuck in the system, in some cases for over a year.
“That is not a good indicator of the party having embraced Shami Chakrabarti’s imperative to adopt a gold standard in dealing with anti-Semitism…
“The second investigation into Ken Livingstone appears to be stuck in limbo, which is incredibly worrying given that Jeremy Corbyn personally assured me that the former mayor of London would be held to account for the renewed offence that he caused after his previous NCC hearing.
“It is imperative that this is addressed in advance of the forthcoming local elections.”
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