Antisemitism in the British Labour Party

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This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Needs to extend coverage for the post-October 7, 2023 period. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2024)

Antisemitism within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom (UK) dates back to its establishment. One early example was comments about "Jewish finance" during the Boer War. In the 2000s, controversies arose over comments by Labour politicians regarding an alleged "Jewish lobby", a comparison by Ken Livingstone of a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, and a 2005 Labour attack on Jewish Conservative Party politician Michael Howard.

Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader in September 2015, allegations of antisemitism within the party grew. Incidents involving Naz Shah in 2014 and Livingstone in 2016 resulted in suspension from party membership pending investigation. In response, Corbyn established the Chakrabarti Inquiry, which concluded that while the party was not "overrun by anti-Semitism or other forms of racism", it found an "occasionally toxic atmosphere" and "clear evidence of ignorant attitudes".^[1][2]

In 2017, Labour Party rules were amended to categorize hate speech, including antisemitism, as a disciplinary matter. In 2018, Corbyn faced scrutiny for his 2012 response to an allegedly antisemitic mural and for his association with Facebook groups, mainly pro-Palestinian, containing antisemitic posts. Labour's NEC (NEC) adopted a definition of antisemitism for disciplinary purposes in July of that year, aligning with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition, with modified examples related to criticism of Israel.^[3][4] In September 2018, the National Executive Committee (NEC) incorporated all 11 IHRA examples, unamended, into the party's code of conduct.^[5]

In May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched an inquiry into whether Labour had "unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish". In October 2020, EHRC published its report, determining that the party was "responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination". It reported 23 instances of political interference and concluded that Labour breached the Equality Act in two cases.^[6][7] Corbyn was subsequently suspended from Labour and the party whip was removed on 29 October 2020 "for a failure to retract" his assertion that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been overstated.^[8]