Scathing report finds both sides of Labor used anti-Semitism as a 'faction weapon'

A devastating report released by the Labor Party found that both sides were using anti-Semitism as a 'faction weapon'.

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released today - two years after it was triggered by an 860-page leaked dossier.

Written by allies of Jeremy Corbyn and leaked when Keir Starmer took power, the April 2020 dossier claimed that 'factional opposition' to the left-winger had hampered efforts to tackle hatred towards the Jews.

This revealed messages between Labor staff who were extremely hostile to Mr Corbyn. Some of them have since taken legal action following the publication of their messages.

Today's report by Martin Forde QC, barrister and former independent adviser to Windrush, is scathing reading for the party.

It concludes that disciplinary proceedings within the Labor Party were "not fit for purpose" and therefore "potentially subject to factional interference".

The report describes a party so torn by factionalism that it was "dysfunctional" and unable to properly defend the nation (

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There was a "total absence of a verifiable database of cases", which prevented the party from gathering accurate information on the number of complaints at any given time.

The number of employees "has become totally insufficient to cope with the dramatic increase in membership from which the Party has benefited".

Today's 138-page report dismisses claims that anti-Corbyn staff deliberately tried to cause Labor to lose the 2017 election, or ensure the party 'did wrong', for oust the leader.

But it is said that "many expected him to do 'badly' and some had mixed feelings" about what a good result would mean for their future.

He also finds that a "handful of staff" set up a supplementary fund which spent £135,000 on campaigns to support the presence of majority anti-Corbyn MPs, instead of target seats held by the Tories.