Two years after it was commissioned, and following many (many)
delays, the Forde report has finally been published. Tasked with
looking into an internal report leaked in 2020, and initially
issued a deadline of July 15th that year, Martin Forde QC sent
his conclusions to the national executive committee (NEC)
yesterday afternoon before they were released to the
public.
He found that “both factions” (pro- and anti-Corbyn) treated
antisemitism as a “factional weapon” under the last leadership.
Anti-Corbyn elements “seized on antisemitism as a way to attack
Jeremy Corbyn”, while supporters of the leadership “saw it simply
as an attack on the leader and his faction” – with everyone
therefore “weaponising the issue and failing to recognise the
seriousness of antisemitism”, according to Forde. He also
confirmed that some HQ staff had “covertly” set up an operation
to largely provide funds for “sitting largely anti-Corbyn MPs and
not on campaigns for pro-Corbyn candidates in potentially Tory
winnable seats”. And his appraisal of the racism and misogyny on
show makes for particularly grim reading. You can read a more
detailed write-up of the
findings here.
Groups across the Labour family found nuggets with which to feel
vindicated – sometimes on the same point, in fact. On the
analysis of factionalism and the 2017 election, for example, both
pro- and anti-Corbyn elements have claimed, respectively, that
the report proved and debunked the theory that a rival campaign
run by Corbynsceptic staffers lost Labour the election. Forde was
clear an “alternative strategy” was pursued, however, and
concluded that staffers in Labour’s headquarters were
“unequivocally wrong” to do so.
Commentary on the report followed its publication thick and fast.
Momentum described it as a “damning indictment of the Labour
right’s attempts to destroy from within the Corbyn leadership”.
Director of Starmer-supportive group Labour to Win and
Progressive Britain Nathan Yeowell said the report showed how
“healthy and legitimate challenge between different traditions
was curdled by antisemitism and the failure to tackle it,
creating a complex set of existential political, philosophical
and moral problems that led to collapse in 2019”. Luke Akehurst,
secretary of Labour First, described the document as “nuanced and
balanced” – although he said the finding that both sides
weaponised antisemitism “offensive”, adding: “There's no moral
equivalence between factionalism fighting antisemitism and
factionalism white-washing it.”
Attention will now turn to the recommendations in the report.
LabourListunderstands that a paper will be presented to
the NEC in September, recommending which should be adopted and
which there are issues with. The inquiry has seemed a perennial
topic of discussion within the Labour Party since April 2020 –
and that discussion is certainly going to continue for a while.
How the leadership will respond is not certain. One thing that is
clear, however, is that rather than being – as many had been
convinced it would be – a ‘whitewash’, the report made for
explosive reading.
