Israel/Palestine

What does the Labour anti-Semitism report say?

Labour has been plagued with allegations of anti-Semitism since 2016, leading to fractious rows within the party. In May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced it would be investigating the party over its handling of the claims.

The watchdog said its analysis "points to a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it".

The interim chair of the EHRC, Caroline Waters, released a statement alongside the report, saying the investigation had "highlighted multiple areas" where the party's "approach and leadership to tackling anti-Semitism was insufficient". "This is inexcusable," she added, "and appeared to be a result of a lack of willingness to tackle anti-Semitism rather than an inability to do so."

But what about the law? Here, the EHRC found Labour responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act: political interference in anti-Semitism complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints and harassment, including the use of anti-Semitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of anti-Semitism were fake or smears.

Labour suspends Jeremy Corbyn over reaction to anti-Semitism report

Responding to the EHRC's findings, Mr Corbyn said he was "always determined to eliminate all forms of racism".

He claimed his team had "acted to speed up, not hinder the process" and that the scale of anti-Semitism within Labour had been "dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party".

Shortly afterwards Labour general secretary David Evans suspended Mr Corbyn. The party said this was "in light of his comments" and "his failure to retract them subsequently".