Jeremy Corbyn: Details of Labour inquiry into ex-leader made public

Image source, PA Media

  • Author, Iain Watson
  • Role, Political correspondent, 大象传媒 News

Jeremy Corbyn's lawyers have put in the public domain for the first time sections of an internal Labour Party investigation in to his conduct.

The former Labour leader was suspended from the party on 29 October following comments he made about the Equalities and Human Rights Commission's report into anti-Semitism within the party.

He claimed that the scale of the problem in the party was "dramatically overstated by our opponents for political reasons".

But according to a section of the report from Labour's Governance and Legal Unit, his statement "did not contain any overtly discriminatory language on the face of it".

The 大象传媒 has not seen the full internal report.

A panel of Labour's NEC reinstated him three weeks after his suspension. But the following day - 18 November - his successor Sir Keir Starmer agreed to continue his suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party.

This prevents him standing again as a Labour MP unless and until the suspension is lifted.

Mr Corbyn's lawyers claim the current Labour leader has acted in bad faith.

High Court application

His legal team made an application to the High Court on Monday for "pre-action disclosure" of minutes of a meeting held between Sir Keir and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, and representatives of Mr Corbyn - Labour MP Jon Trickett and Unite general secretary Len McCluskey - on 3 November.

His lawyers allege that the meeting agreed the terms on which Mr Corbyn would have his party membership restored following his suspension, and they claim the meeting concluded that Mr Corbyn would have the parliamentary whip restored too, with no further sanctions.

They also called for minutes of a zoom meeting on 12 November, involving two members of the Labour leader's office and two representatives of Mr Corbyn, to be disclosed.

The Labour Party's lawyers described this as a "fishing expedition" and said "there are no notes or minutes... and no agreement (with Mr Corbyn) was entered into".

Sir Keir's spokesman has maintained that while the opposition leader's office had received representations from Mr Corbyn's supporters, no deal was struck.

The former leader's lawyers are hoping to prove otherwise. The judge took no decision on disclosure of the documents on Monday and said she would give her ruling as soon as possible.