Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Britain’s Labour party has dropped a bitter legal dispute with five former staff who worked for Jeremy Corbyn and were accused of leaking an embarrassing internal report.
The staff, including former communications director Seumas Milne, had been accused of covertly releasing a report in 2020 into the party’s handling of antisemitism and Islamophobia complaints.
Labour had claimed in its legal documents that the five had “entered into a conspiracy” against the party under Sir Keir Starmer “with the intention of disrupting or embarrassing the then-new leadership”.
On Thursday, Carter-Ruck, the law firm representing the five, said: “The party is discontinuing its legal claims against Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne, Georgie Robertson, Harry Hayball and Laura Murray on a ‘no order as to costs’ basis. The five welcome the resolution of the claims.”
Starmer, who was elected in 2020 by Labour after Corbyn’s heavy election defeat the previous year, had pledged to rid the party of an image of tolerating antisemitism, and to rebuild its relations with the Jewish community.
While the party currently has a commanding lead in the polls ahead of the July 4 general election, Starmer himself has faced criticism over his recent handling of the deselection of some of the party’s left-wing candidates.
He was accused of a “purge” of some candidates, including Faiza Shaheen, who is now running as an independent against the party.
Ending the legal case against the five former staffers prevents the dispute running on after the election.
In 2022, the Information Commission determined after an independent investigation that there was “insufficient evidence” that any of the five were responsible for the leak.
The Financial Times revealed last October that the party had spent £1.4mn on legal fees in its case. Its final costs are likely to end up being much higher.
The 860-page report, called “The Work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in Relation to Antisemitism 2014-19”, had claimed that attempts by the party to tackle complaints had been hampered by factional hostility. It was leaked on April 11 in 2020, just days after Starmer replaced Corbyn as leader.
The five had faced legal costs of more than £1mn if the case had gone to trial, having already rung up substantial legal bills. It is understood that neither the Labour party nor the defendants have paid any damages or legal fees to the other party.
Mish Rahman, a member of Labour’s national executive committee, said: “We learn that millions of pounds in members’ money, which could have been spent on the general election, has instead been wasted in pursuit of former staff.”
One Labour MP described the dropping of the case as a “huge embarrassment” for Labour, accusing the leadership of “political lawfare” against factional enemies.
