A Statement from the Executive Committee of Sheffield Hallam Labour Party:
The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 – 2019

This committee is alarmed and angered by the allegations made in the recently leaked report, which include:

• senior Labour Party staff and MPs actively working to prevent a Labour victory in the 2017 general election, and misusing Labour Party funds in order to do so
• senior Labour Party staff deliberately delaying disciplinary action in relation to complaints of antisemitism in order to embarrass the leader of the Party
• senior Labour Party staff failing to act on cases of islamophobia in order to protect their political allies
• senior Labour Party staff using misogynistic, racist and derogatory language, bullying colleagues such as Diane Abbott, and wishing death upon Labour Party members
• senior Labour Party staff participating in a witch-hunt of left activists in the Party (sometimes referring to these members as “trots”).

If these allegations are true, this behaviour represents a clear breach of Party rules and a deliberate, sustained effort to subvert party democracy. The alleged misuse of Party funds potentially amounts to fraud, and the alleged conduct towards female, BAME, Jewish and Muslim members may be a criminal offence under the Equality Act. The allegations about the conduct of senior Party staff in relation to bullying, antisemitism and islamophobia will have damaged the public’s trust in the Party – particularly for women and minority groups – making it much harder to for us locally to build strong relationships within our diverse community and represent the views of our constituents. Many members will feel they no longer have a place in our Party due to the alleged betrayal of its membership by senior staff.

We welcome the statement from Kier Starmer and Angela Rayner committing to an independent review of this report; however, we feel that this statement does not go far enough.

We also very much welcome the statement from the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and we call upon all members to maintain their membership of the party.

We call upon the Party Leadership and the NEC to ensure that:

1. an independent inquiry is held urgently to verify the allegations made in the leaked report, and that all individuals accused of serious misconduct in this report, or identified during the inquiry as potentially having engaged in serious misconduct, be suspended immediately pending the outcome of the inquiry
2. the leaked report (redacted where necessary for the purpose of data protection) and the subsequent inquiry be made public in full and submitted to the Equality and Human Rights Commission
3. fundamental changes be made in order to democratise and make transparent the Labour Party’s central operations and disciplinary procedures to ensure that this can never happen again
4. the recommendations of the Chakrabarti Report be implemented in full as a matter of urgency
5. if the accusations in the report are found to be true:
   • the status of all members who were expelled, and all who resigned their membership while under investigation and/or disciplinary proceedings, be reviewed
     • if it is demonstrated that factional motives resulted in a member’s expulsion or disciplinary action, this action must be reversed
   • any staffers or ex-staffers involved be disciplined in line with the Party rules and procedures
   • any MPs or Lords involved have the Labour whip withdrawn immediately pending disciplinary measures in line with the Party rules
   • individuals involved in this behaviour, where appropriate, be referred to the police for criminal investigation
   • the Labour Party apologise to
     • its members, campaigners and MPs who fought tirelessly for a Labour government
     • all the victims of austerity – including those who have lost loved ones – since 2017
     • female and BAME members for the hurt caused by the revelations of this report
     • the Jewish and Muslim communities for Labour’s failure to act on cases of antisemitism and islamophobia.

Sincerely,

Executive Committee
Sheffield Hallam Constituency Labour Party 17/04/2020