Amid allegations that disciplinary cases are being influenced by political bias, the report recommends antisemitism cases are anonymised and put to the hearing panel “in a similar way to how names are redacted from papers which go to the NEC Sexual Harassment Panel”.
Admitting that politics of individual members sitting on Labour’s NEC panel have come to impact on antisemitism cases, the report says: “There is a perception that cases are not dealt with in a consistent manner due to political forces influencing decisions with particular respondents – particularly at the NEC Disputes Panel stage of the process.”
The 13-point action plan was presented to the Antisemitism Working Group at the May 22 meeting at Labour’s headquarters in central London.
It includes proposals to fast-track complaints with smaller, specially-trained teams of investigators.
Teams of new three-member antisemitism panels will meet to try and slash the time it takes to hear cases.
More staff are being hired to help deal with the backlog of over up 100 outstanding antisemitism cases.
“A Complaints Unit, made up of 3 full time staff, and a new bespoke system to manage all complaints received by the Labour Party has significantly improved the way in which complainants and respondents are communicated with,” the report says.
The report, which also admits to a lack of consistency in how cases are handled, was drafted by senior party figures including Momentum founder Jon Lansman and Baroness Shami Chakrabarti.
In proposals previously outlined by General Secretary Jennie Formby, a new in-house lawyer will be asked to produce clearer evidence tests to make the complaints system more transparent.
The report says: “The perception is that the process is not swift enough from start to finish, that it is susceptible to political forces at each stage of the process and that there is a lack of consistency in how cases are adjudicated on.
“The proposed changes... seek to take the themes outlined in the Chakrabarti report and apply them as a first step in a root and branch review of how the process works – learning the lessons from recent changes to the way the Party handles other types of complaints – most notably Sexual Harassment.”
Despite the resignation of Ken Livingstone from the party last week, there are still a number of high profile cases yet to be resolved, including that of former Momentum vice chair Jackie Walker.
