Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said "so be it" about the prospect of the equalities watchdog finding his party institutionally antisemitic.
Mr McDonnell, who left the shadow cabinet after Sir Keir Starmer's election as leader earlier this month, was defending the controversial, leaked report that tried to blame opponents of Jeremy Corbyn for the party's failure to tackle Jew-hate in its ranks, which prompted the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to launch an investigation.
Supporting the controversial document, which was circulated on social media with the names of numerous antisemitism whistle-blowers unredacted, Mr McDonnell suggested on Sky News it proved that Mr Corbyn’s ability to deal with the problem was undermined by unsupportive party officials.
But while Labour’s own lawyers advised against sending the 860-page report to the EHRC, Mr McDonnell said: "I think the truth has got to come out…if that means the EHRC comes to a finding saying that the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic, well, so be it."
On Friday, the Jewish Labour Movement wrote to Labour’s governing body, the National Executive Committee, seeking assurances the party would "commit to cooperating fully with the Information Commissioners Office investigation into the widespread leaking of the report".
Media lawyer Mark Lewis has been contacted by "dozens" of angry Labour whistle-blowers wishing to take action against the party over possible data breaches.
Several other individuals have also claimed that the report selectively used internal emails to support the suggestion that Mr Corbyn's efforts to deal with antisemitism in the party were undermined by his opponents.
JLM accused the leaked report of identifying victims in a "reckless and dangerous way".
A source told the JC: "If the leaking of the report has led to countless innocent victims of antisemitism having their names spread all over the internet, you would expect the [Information Commissioner's] investigation into the same report to uncover the names of those who were responsible for leaking it."
During his Sky interview, Mr McDonnell said party officials named in the report who exchanged messages attacking Mr Corbyn should be suspended.
He said: "Whatever allows the EHRC to find the truth is the key issue. So everything in this report, if it is true, should be exposed to the EHRC.
"They've got to have access to all of the information. We've got to rid ourselves of this culture that prevented a Labour government when we desperately needed one but also, by the looks of it, undermined the party's ability to deal with antisemitism effectively."
Mr McDonnell suggested ‘’angry’’ members were leaving the party over the report's claims and said Sir Keir should "go further" in his response to the
On Thursday evening Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby, who commissioned the report, emailed every Constitutuency Labour Party to warn: "Any CLP in receipt of a copy of the report or its contents MUST NOT share or distribute that material in any way, including on social media.
‘’Any individual who shares or distributes the report or its contents on an unauthorised basis will be immediately exposing themselves to potential significant civil and criminal liability.’’
In their statement JLM said there was ‘’no excuses for antisemitism, racism or Islamophobia’’ but also condemned those accused of using ‘’deeply offensive language’’ as ‘’abhorrent.’’
