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‘Appalled’ Watson Demands Labour’s Corbyn Act on Antisemitism

U.K. Labour Figures ‘Interfered’ With Antisemitism Cases: BBC

(Bloomberg) -- Tom Watson, deputy leader of the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party, said he was “chilled and appalled” by a report accusing senior figures in the party of interfering in internal investigations of antisemitism.

The “culture of permissiveness” of anti-Jewish racism in Labour must be dealt with, Watson told BBC Radio on Thursday, urging leader Jeremy Corbyn to take action. “Not only do I think he can fix it, he’s the only one who can,” he said.

A BBC “Panorama” investigation broadcast Wednesday featured former employees of the Labour Party making allegations that Jennie Formby, the General Secretary, and others don’t take the party’s antisemitism problem seriously and intervened in independent disciplinary cases.

‘Appalled’ Watson Demands Labour’s Corbyn Act on Antisemitism

The U.K.’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said the report should be a “watershed” moment. “This is no longer a question of the leadership’s inability to deal with the scourge of Antisemitism, but of its direct complicity in it,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The Labour Party denied the Leader’s Office had intervened in disciplinary cases and said the ex-staff members featured were “disaffected officials who have always opposed Corbyn’s leadership, worked to actively undermine it and have both personal and political axes to grind”.

But Watson, who was elected deputy leader separately from Corbyn, said he’s been refused access to details of the party’s membership and complaints about antisemitism, said the former employees “showed great courage to speak out the way they did.” He said “there was obviously some participation” from the leader’s office in the antisemitism investigations.

“This is about culture and practice,” Watson said. “Culture takes a bit longer to sort out, but there are actions we can take today that would help deal with antisemitism.”

The BBC report came after the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a formal investigation to determine if the Labour Party has unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimized people because they are Jewish. Labour has committed to cooperating with the commission.

According to the BBC, Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s director of communications, called for a review of the disciplinary process in March 2018. He said the current system was “muddling up political disputes with racism.”

“Panorama” showed email evidence of Formby saying she wanted to influence the selection of a panel investigating allegations of antisemitism by Jackie Walker, a prominent party activist. She later deleted the email chain, which was copied to Corbyn, saying “I’ve permanently deleted all trace of the email. Too many eyes on my Labour address.”

In response, the Labour Party said Formby temporarily stopped using her party email address because of concerns that a political opponent had access to it. The party said it “completely rejects” any claim that it is antisemitic.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas Penny

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