Whistleblowers must not be attacked, warns Unite Labour staff branch

The Unite Labour staff branch has declared that the primary focus of the independent investigation into the leaked internal report should be on the “alleged behaviour in the report and not an attack on whistleblowing”.

In a statement released today, the organisation expressed the concerns of its members over the document on Labour’s disciplinary process and said that it should never have been released unredacted.

But the branch described it as “shocking” that factional sabotage could have contributed to the 2017 defeat and called for the party to act swiftly in its investigation, warning against it being “kicked into the long grass”.

The text of the statement echoed the words of Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, and said that “in working for a Labour defeat, they were working for a Tory victory”.

The GMB Labour staff branch has also passed a motion today that calls on party general secretary Jennie Formby to “personally apologise to the current staffers named in the report”.

It also passed another motion on racism, which notes that Labour “still has institutional problems regarding the treatment of people of colour” in the party.

The GMB racism motion resolves to “condemn conversations between former senior management about BAME politicians, which are wrong and show a lack of sensitivity”.

The motions follow a statement from the GMB branch on Wednesday, which said the release of the leaked internal review had caused “immense stress” for the workers named in the document.

The union branches are reacting to the leaking of a report into antisemitism in the party over the weekend, which described alleged mishandling of disciplinary cases and attempts by members of staff to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

In response to the release of this 851-page document, Starmer committed to an “urgent independent investigation” into the background, the content and the way in which the report has been released into the public domain.