Investigation into Antisemitism in the Labor Party

On 28 May 2019, we launched an investigation into the Labour Party, following serious public concern about allegations of antisemitism and a number of formal complaints made to us.

We carried out this investigation using our statutory powers contained in the Equality Act 2006.

The investigation aimed to determine whether the Labour Party committed a breach of the Equality Act 2010, related to Jewish ethnicity or Judaism, against its members, associates or guests, through the actions of its employees or agents. We also investigated the steps taken by the Party to implement the recommendations of previous reports, and whether the Party handled antisemitism complaints lawfully, efficiently and effectively.

We looked at a wide range of evidence from the Labour Party, the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), the Jewish Voice for Labour, a number of whistleblowers and other individuals and organisations.

We carried out in-depth analysis of a sample of 70 complaint investigation files. We selected 58 of these files out of over 220 complaints identified in different sources. The remaining 12 were put forward by the Labour Party.

After the Labour Party submitted its final evidence to us, an 850-page report titled ‘The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014-2019’ was leaked to the press on 12 April 2020. We were not informed that this report was being prepared and it remains unpublished. It was not proportionate for us to require the Labour Party to provide the evidence underlying the report.

We have considered the leaked report and taken it into account where appropriate. However, we have done so while bearing in mind that we have not seen all of the evidence on which the conclusions in the leaked report were based.