Labour Party Withdraws Lawsuit Against Ex-Employees of Corbyn
The Labour Party had accused five individuals, including Mr. Corbyn’s former chief of staff, of leaking a ‘controversial report’ on anti-Semitism.
The legal claims against five Jeremy Corbyn-era staff members, who denied leaking an internal report to the press, have been dropped by Labour, as confirmed by the law firm Carter-Ruck on Thursday.
All five individuals stated that they would vigorously defend themselves in any High Court action.
Carter-Ruck, representing the former staff members, stated: “The [Labour] Party is dropping its legal claims against Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne, Georgie Robertson, Harry Hayball, and Laura Murray on a ‘no order as to costs’ basis.”
“The five individuals welcome the resolution of the claims,” said the London-based law firm.
The Labour governance and legal unit did not find any evidence of anti-Semitism being handled differently from other complaints.
During Mr. Corbyn’s leadership, there were complaints of anti-Semitism due to his pro-Palestinian stance, as well as accusations that senior officials were slow to respond to in-house anti-Semitic rhetoric or impeded investigations into such allegations.
Additionally, there were allegations that anti-Corbyn staffers redirected funds away from specific constituencies during the 2017 general election.
‘Factional Obsession’
The Forde Report, released in 2022, aimed to investigate the leaked report and its circumstances.
The report was unable to identify the leak source and noted that more interviews and document examinations were necessary.
Martin Forde, KC, the report author, expressed regret over the money spent on legal fees instead of campaign expenses.
A spokesperson from the Momentum campaign group criticized the spending, calling it a waste of members’ money.
The party faced challenges in getting the case to the High Court, and the judge rejected the application in 2021 due to lack of conclusive evidence linking the individuals to the leak.
The former Labour Party employees denied the accusations and criticized the party for scapegoating them instead of focusing on the issues raised in the leaked report.
PA Media contributed to this report.
