Labour’s hate files expose Jeremy Corbyn’s anti‑semite army

Corbyn's office has been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints.

The party claims the disciplinary process has been free from political interference since March last year. A month later, however, in an email seen by The Sunday Times, Corbyn's chief of staff, Karie Murphy, said that "going forward" his office needed an "overview" of politically sensitive cases.

Leaked emails also reveal:

• Thomas Gardiner, a Corbyn ally and the powerful chief of Labour's governance and legal unit, last month frustrated efforts by a member of his staff to fast-track the investigation of a member who condemned two Jewish MPs for being "shit-stirring c** buckets" in the pay of Israel"

• In one case, an MP reported a member for saying the Board of Deputies, Britain's representative Jewish body, were "c****" and that saying so was "not anti-semitic, it's anti-c***. See Israel." The member was let off with a warning

• A Labour official said a council candidate who accused Jewish MPs of being "Zionist infiltrators" met the threshold for suspension. She then ruled that because he "is a candidate" he should not be suspended; he faced no action.

Last night, Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, said: "This makes for deeply shocking and depressing reading. Labour members and the Jewish community will not understand how, many years on from the first concerns about anti-semitism being raised, we have not got to grips with it."

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking, said: "The scale of the abuse, the depth of the hatred and the total lack of action by the Labour Party is astonishing." She added: "Jeremy gave me assurances that he does not intervene in complaints. This investigation proves that either he is lying to me or his office are lying to him."

Of 863 complaints overall, 454 (53%) are unresolved, including 249 where the party has not started an investigation. There are 176 ongoing probes. Just 29 cases have been referred to the body authorised to expel individuals.

Of 409 cases where a decision was reached, 191 members faced no further action and 145 received a formal warning - which has no impact on membership or ability to stand as party candidate. Fewer than 30 were expelled; the rest left the party of their own accord.

The findings come as The Sunday Times reveals details of the secretly recorded meeting in which Corbyn and his political secretary, Amy Jackson, assured Hodge his team would "never" interfere in complaints. At the height of Labour's anti-semitism crisis, in January, Corbyn told the MP: "It doesn't come here . . . I don't involve myself in the complaint at all."

Jackson said: "Absolutely not. I could tell you 100% we would never do that, that would be an appalling thing to do."

However, the claims he made during the meeting are apparently undermined by emails in which the leader's chief of staff says Jackson herself must be kept abreast of certain complaints.

In an email dated April 5, Murphy wrote: "I think it's important for Amy Jackson to have an overview of all complaints that involve elected politicians or candidates."

A Labour spokesperson said: "These figures are not accurate," adding: "Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents.

"Former staffers asked the Leader's Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by Jennie Formby [now in that role].

"The Labour Party takes complaints of anti-semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out. All complaints are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We can't comment on individual cases."