The findings of the Forde inquiry are out, and they make for explosive reading

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. LabourList understands 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.