Labour settles claims brought by 20 people over leaked antisemitism dossier

The Guardian

2 days ago

Labour has settled claims brought by 20 people, mainly former staffers, who featured in a leaked internal document about antisemitism within the party, with the costs estimated to be close to £2m.
The settlements include a payout to Labour's former elections chief Patrick Heneghan, who was falsely accused in the dossier of having tried to sabotage Jeremy Corbyn's chances of winning the 2017 election.
It is understood the payouts will total just under £1m, but with Labour paying both sides' legal fees the cost to the party will be near £2m.
This puts the total legal costs for Labour connected to the dossier to more than £4m, with court documents released last year showing the party spent £2.4m on its own eventually abandoned lawsuit pursuing five separate staffers it accused of being behind the leak.
The 800-page document was produced under Corbyn's leadership. It was billed as being part of a submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for the rights watchdog's inquiry into antisemitism within Labour, but was never submitted.
It was instead anonymously leaked and included hundreds of private WhatsApp messages from named staff detailing hostility towards Corbyn and his allies. The report said factional hostility contributed to an ineffective handling of antisemitism complaints, and set out claims of anti-black racism, Islamophobia, sexism and bullying.
The 20 people whose cases have been settled took action over alleged defamation or the unauthorised use of personal data, or both. Six opted to be named, including Heneghan, who had previously labelled the idea he sabotaged the 2017 election a 'stab-in-the-back' conspiracy theory. A statement by the named claimants' legal team, read to the court, said this claim was among a series of false allegations against Heneghan.
Also named was Labour's former head of governance John Stolliday, who took action over the leak of private messages and what the statement called 'false and damaging' allegations that he tried to obstruct action on antisemitism in order to undermine Corbyn. A staffer in the governance unit, Fraser Welsh, took action over similar claims.
Another named party was Joe Goldberg, then a Labour councillor in Haringey, north London. The statement to the court said the leaked document made 'wholly untrue' claims that Goldberg was Islamophobic and had tried to smear another party member with an unfounded allegation of antisemitism.
Another payout went to Ben Santhouse, who had made a confidential complaint to the party about alleged antisemitism and was then named in the leaked report as 'a vexatious complainant who made disproportionate and unfounded allegations of antisemitism against individuals', claims the document read to the court said were defamatory.
According to the claimants, as well as not being told about the fact their private messages and emails were being leaked, the dossier in some cases used the messages to create misleading narratives.
In the wake of the furore over the leaked dossier, Labour under Keir Starmer's leadership commissioned a report by the senior lawyer Martin Forde QC. Published in 2022, it concluded that destructive infighting within the party under Corbyn's tenure meant antisemitism was often used as a 'factional weapon' by his critics, and then denied by his supporters.
It also said it was 'highly unlikely' that staff sought to sabotage the 2017 election, and that the leaked report was itself a factional document with an agenda to advance. The Forde report did not, however, agree with claims that derogatory messages in the leaked dossier were 'cherrypicked and selectively edited'.
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In June last year, Labour withdrew legal action against five former staff members, including Corbyn's former chief of staff Karie Murphy and his former director of communications Seumas Milne, who were accused of leaking the report.
All of the five, also comprising Georgie Robertson, Laura Murray and Harry Hayball, had vehemently denied being responsible. The Forde report said it had been unable to determine who leaked the document.
Separate to the dossier, in 2020 the party apologised to seven former employees and a BBC journalist after admitting it had defamed them in the aftermath of a Panorama investigation into its handling of antisemitism. The settlement to the ex-staff and the reporter John Ware was believed to have cost Labour about £600,000. It retracted claims by the party that the whistleblowers were motivated by opposition to Corbyn and that Ware had acted misleadingly.
A Labour spokesperson said: 'The party welcomes the resolution of this matter.'
It is understood the latest claims were settled before last year's general election, although the details have only been set out now. The party did not comment on the payouts or costs.