Bristol North West Labour Party host meeting on pro-Corbyn motion on Shabbat - leaving Jewish members unable to attend

The motion said: “We, like Corbyn, are opposed to all forms of racism, including Antisemitism and support the Party’s commitment to removing members who feed racism from our ranks. Jeremy Corbyn is not one of these members.

“We call on the party leader and General Secretary - whomever is responsible for the decision - to reinstate Jeremy Corbyn’s membership and to make good on Sir Keir Starmer’s promise to unify the party.”

In her email on Friday to local members, secretary Ms Giles confirmed  that since circulating the motion “we have received letters from David Evans and Phil Gaskin, Labour Party Regional Director” which suggest “we have no right to discuss this motion.”

The CLP secretary said the local party “take these threats very seriously". 

She added: “We will seek to strike a balance between the right of CLPs and members to freely discuss the business of the party, and the limits imposed by the party's rules. We will do this by sticking closely to the procedure outlined below. We have spoken with officers of our neighbours in Bristol West CLP, who met on Monday and agreeda similar motion calling for Jeremy Corbyn's suspension to be lifted. 

“Almost 200 members attended the Bristol West meeting, and we are grateful for their advice in drawing up this procedure.”

The neighbouring Bristol West local party passed the motion calling for Mr Corbyn to be reinstated earlier this week, although the MP Thangham Debbonaire opposed the motion.

Ms Giles has just stood for election in the post of Labour Party treasurer in the latest internal party ballot. The results are expected on Friday.

The JC has contacted her for comment over the timing of tonight’s Bristol North West meeting.

On Friday it also emerged that both the chair and the co-chair of Bristol West CLP had been suspended from the Labour after a pro-Corbyn motion was passed at a meeting – in clear defiance of an email sent out by General Secretary Mr Evans.

Other members of the same local party are also believed to have been notified of suspensions.

Mr Evans sent the same email that has been sent to Bristol North West CLP ahead of Friday night’s planned meeting.

Jewish Labour Movement’s national organiser Rebecca Flier tweeted on Friday: “When I was a member in Bristol West I organised for the Jewish Labour Movement to deliver their antisemitism awareness training.

“It was picketed and Labour members showed up to try and derail the event armed with ‘evidence’ from Al Jazeera’s ‘The Lobby’ series.”

A Labour Party source told the JC: "It is a long-standing position that motions on individual disciplinary matters are not competent CLP business. This is important to protect the integrity of disciplinary processes and is consistent with similar rulings made by Jennie Formby when she was General Secretary.

"CLPs have received guidance on conducting discussions of the EHRC report in a constructive and inclusive way that recognises that its recommendations result from a statutory investigation and that the party has accepted it in full.

"We cannot comment on individual cases because our disciplinary procedures are confidential and we must uphold our legal responsibilities for data protection.

"We will not tolerate abuse of Labour Party staff in person or on social media."