The British Labour Party has failed to take disciplinary action against hundreds of members accused of anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
A hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 reveal how the party’s system for dealing with such complaints is bedevilled by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office.
They reveal members investigated for posting such online comments as “Heil Hitler”, “F..k the Jews” and “Jews are the problem” have not been expelled, even though the party received the complaints a year ago.
A sitting councillor in Lancashire was let back into the party after fuming about “Jewish” media attacks and the Rothschild family. She told party investigators she meant “Jewish” as a “blanket term of description without any racist connotations”. In Manchester, a trade union official was readmitted despite sharing material saying “Jewish Israelis” were behind 9/11.
Mr Corbyn’s office has been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints.
The party claims the disciplinary process has been free from political interference since March last year.
A month later, however, in an email seen by The Sunday Times, Corbyn’s chief of staff, Karie Murphy, said that “going forward” his office needed an “overview” of politically-sensitive cases.
Read the article by Gabriel Pogrund in The Australian (from The Sunday Times).