Labour’s ruling body agrees EHRC draft action plan on antisemitism

Labour’s national executive committee has agreed the draft action plan on tackling antisemitism within the party that will be presented this week to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Labour’s national executive committee has given its approval to the draft action plan it is required to submit to the Equality and Human Rights Commission this week.

“It covers all the EHRC’s recommendations and is an important step towards Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner’s commitment to rebuilding trust and confidence with our Jewish members and the Jewish community.”

The party was served with an unlawful act notice in late October and given six weeks to produce a draft action plan in response to the findings and recommendations of the report released by the equality body.

The NEC held a special meeting this afternoon from 3pm to discuss the party’s response to the EHRC and approve the draft plan that must be sent by Labour to the EHRC by Thursday, December 10th.

LabourList sources say the draft plan was agreed unanimously, and that everyone who contributed to talked about the importance of implementing the plan and moving on. Members had sight of both the plan and a presentation of slides.

There were “lots of questions and contributions from across the spectrum”, one NEC member said. The meeting was joined by Jane Ramsey, who has been appointed to lead on the project of actioning the EHRC recommendations.

LabourList understands that the draft action plan, outlining steps around changing Labour’s procedures and culture, will be submitted this week and implementation will begin once it is agreed by the EHRC.

The party intends to meet regularly with the EHRC to monitor its progress on implementing the recommendations, which include commissioning an independent process to handle and determine complaints.

LabourList has also been told that the party is not allowed to publish the draft plan as it is not the action plan until it secures EHRC approval. Whether the final approved plan will be released has not yet been decided.

It is not expected by party officials, LabourList understands, that the EHRC will approve the draft plan very shortly; instead it thought the body will give its response to the document at some point after this week.

Sources say the draft is designed to show that Labour understands the recommendations, and to develop good dialogue between the party and the EHRC, rather than offer a high level of detail about implementation at this stage.

Asked about the content of the draft action plan, an EHRC spokesperson told LabourList: “The Labour Party will share an action plan with us by the end of Thursday 10 December.

“The action plan must provide sufficient detail of actions that the party will take in order to ensure the recommendations are implemented in full.

“We will then consider this draft and will either approve it or give them notice that it is not adequate and that we require a revised version.”