Seventy present and former Labour officials give evidence to anti-semitism probe
2 min read
Seventy present and former Labour staffers have given evidence to a probe into anti-semitism in the party, it has emerged.
They have put their names to the Jewish Labour Movement's (JLM) submission to the inquiry being carried out by the Equalities and Human Right Commission.
One whistleblower claimed they were told to pass allegations of anti-Jewish racism by party members to Jeremy Corbyn's office, despite the party's insistence that they were not involved in the process.
The 47-page dossier includes allegations that at various Labour branch meetings, members have been called "a Tory Jew", "Zio scum", and told "to shut the f*** up Jew" and that "that Hitler was right".
According to the JLM, there were 136 outstanding complaints of anti-semitism in October, while around 100 allegations were not logged in the system at all.
Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that the party has dealt with every case of anti-Jewish hatred which has been raised with it.
The JLM submission says: "The Labour Party is no longer a safe space for Jewish people or for those who stand up against anti-semitism. That is the disturbing but inevitable conclusion from the evidence that JLM has put before the Commission over the course of the past 13 months."
But a Labour Party spokesperson said: "Anti-semitism is an evil and we are committed to rooting it out of our party and society. We are fully co-operating with the EHRC.
"The allegation about numbers of outstanding cases is not accurate. And it is categorically untrue that anyone has been instructed to lie.
"The Labour Party is not institutionally anti-semitic and complaints relate to a small minority of our members.
"We are the only political party that has published figures on cases of anti-semitism, and we regularly account for the work we are doing to tackle it.
"We have significantly reformed our procedures over the past year, including recently adopting a proposal by Jeremy Corbyn for rapid expulsions, which allows individuals to be expelled within a matter of weeks in open and shut cases."
The EHRC announced its investigation earlier this year and is expected to report its findings in early 2020.
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