The British Labor Party admitted that it defamed the Jewish whistleblowers who spoke to the BBC. Panorama anti-semitism program in the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
The program featured a series of Jewish whistleblowers who condemned the party’s practices on anti-Semitic complaints under Corbyn’s leadership, alleging that several high-ranking party officials interfered with investigations of suspected perpetrators who were party members.
Labor responded at the time by accusing those who participated in the program of being simply “disaffected former employees” who harbored “personal and political axes to grind” and made malicious and false claims to harm the party.
Seven of the complainants and the Panorama Program presenter John Ware sued Labor for defamation. In Ware’s lawsuit, he claims that Labor defamed him when he and his team were accused of “deliberate and malicious representations designed to deceive the public.”
Labor’s 28-page complaint to the BBC complained that the program contained “the biased and politically inclined script; the bias in interviewee selection; and the failure to identify political affiliations or interviewee records in a highly controversial, sensitive and disputed issue produced a program that was a controversy of unilateral authorship. “
Accusations of anti-Jewish racism haunted the Labor Party under Corbyn, although it always denied it. A Jewish lawmaker quit the party for its flaws, was linked to anti-Semitic speakers and Facebook posts, and was widely convicted of failing to expel anti-Semitic members of the party.
On the day Keir Starmer was chosen to replace him, the new Labor leader announced that convincing the Jewish community that the party had changed was his top priority. He said he would eliminate anti-Semitism in the party. The last step in that process was to retract his incendiary complaint to the BBC and admit that they had defamed and mistreated the complainants.
“We acknowledge the many years of dedicated and committed service that the Whistleblowers have provided to the Labor Party as members and as staff,” reads the statement, released on Wednesday. “We unreservedly drop all charges of bad faith, malice and lies. We would like to apologize without reservation for the anguish, shame and pain caused by your publication. We have agreed to pay you damages.
The statement continues to admit that anti-Semitism on the job “has been a stain” on the party in recent years. “It has caused unacceptable and unimaginable levels of pain and anguish for many in the Jewish community, as well as for staff members.”
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