Hodge accuses Corbyn’s team of protecting Labour antisemites

Dame Margaret Hodge has claimed that there is evidence Jeremy Corbyn’s staff have interfered in Labour antisemitism cases to lower sanctions.

Appearing on Radio 4’s Today programme, Hodge talked about how “a whole number” of Jeremy Corbyn’s “top team… are involved in decisions around individual complaints”.

“They interfere and lower the sanctions so they are just given a warning letter,” she claimed.

The MP for Barking said: “What is so awful about this is that Jeremy always proclaims zero tolerance of antisemitism. When it comes to the actual cases, if they’re his mates, he doesn’t demonstrate zero tolerance.

“He claims no political interference in these cases. There is. I’ve now seen so much evidence. There is definitely political interference, so trust in him has gone.”

Last week Corbyn reassured me categorically that his office never intervened in antisemitism complaints. @ObserverUK whistleblower account clearly shows Corbyn’s office have intervened. Either Corbyn has intentionally misled me or his staff have misled him. Full letter below pic.twitter.com/gUR6LvJ3QW

— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) March 5, 2019

The Labour leader’s office acknowledges that members of Corbyn’s team have given advice but says they couldn’t overrule decisions and weren’t involved in the investigations. It also maintains that the reports in the Observer applied to an old system that has stopped being used since Jennie Formby became general secretary.

Responding to the claims, a Labour spokesperson said: “Since becoming general secretary, Jennie Formby has made procedures for dealing with complaints about antisemitism more robust. Staff who work on disciplinary matters have always led on investigations and recommendations on individual cases.

“Any suggestion that staff in the leader’s office overturned recommendations on individual cases is categorically untrue.”

LabourList understands that – under Iain McNicol’s tenure as general secretary – an adviser from Corbyn’s office offered his views on 13 cases, only disagreed with the Governance and Legal Unit (GLU) suggestions on one case, and GLU staff made the ultimate decision.

Yet Hodge told the BBC: “I’ve got evidence that under the new general secretary of the Labour Party, those very close to Jeremy Corbyn… were involved in discussing cases of terrible antisemitic abuse and in lowering how those people were dealt with.”

Formby is understood to be in discussions with Labour peer Charlie Falconer, who has been promised full access to the Labour HQ email archive to help him oversee a review of how the party deals with antisemitism cases.

Lord Falconer has not yet accepted the role, but the move has been regarded as a positive step forward for Labour. However, asked whether he would be independent in his role, Hodge said that he wouldn’t.

“Last summer, when action was being taken by the Labour Party against me, I was absolutely bombarded by telephone calls from Charlie Falconer. They were not about the rights and wrongs of the case – they were all about trying to force me to give an apology.

“He is not independent,” she concluded, warning that someone outside of the party should take on the role or there would be “another Chakrabarti fiasco”.

Lord Falconer responded: “I was trying to help Margaret. I was urging the Labour Party to drop the proceedings against her and I was discussing with her whether her lawyers could agree to a form of words with the Labour Party’s lawyers.

“I regard Margaret as a friend. I am so sorry that she thought I pressed too hard.”