Corbyn under fire from staff and Labour peers over antisemitism

Jeremy Corbyn has come under renewed pressure as more than 200 former and current staff challenged him to resign if he could not renew trust in Labour party’s dealings with employees, and senior Labour peers offered to step in to overhaul its antisemitism complaints procedures.

Labour is to hold an extraordinary shadow cabinet meeting next Monday to address concerns on antisemitism and Corbyn will address MPs on the issue on the same day.

The party leader and his shadow ministers are raking over the fallout from the BBC’s Panorama programme on Labour antisemitism. Labour’s leaders in the House of Lords issued a veiled challenge to Corbyn’s authority on Monday, warning him that without decisive leadership antisemitism was a “cancer that will continue to grow”.

The four senior peers wrote to Corbyn with an offer to establish a panel to review the allegations of former party staffers made on Panorama and to “provide advice and support on how a properly independent complaints process could be set up and run”.

The peers – Angela Smith, the party’s leader in the Lords, her deputy, Dianne Hayter, the chairman of the peers’ group, Toby Harris, and Tommy McAvoy, the chief whip – set out their view amid consternation about the Panorama allegations that the leader’s office interfered in complaints about antisemitism. Eight former employees appeared on the programme to discuss the handling of complaints. The party denies the allegations and complained to the BBC about the programme.

After the documentary aired on Wednesday, a Labour party spokesperson said several of the whistleblowers involved held political grudges against Corbyn.

“These disaffected former officials include those who have always opposed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, worked to actively undermine it, and have both personal and political axes to grind,” the spokesman said. “It is simply untrue to say that there were any significant number of disagreements about what constituted antisemitism.

“Labour is taking decisive action against antisemitism, doubling the number of staff dedicated to dealing with complaints and cases. And since Jennie Formby became general secretary, the rate at which antisemitism cases have been dealt with has increased fourfold.”

Anger about the Panorama programme, and the party’s response to it, spilled over from a meeting of MPs on Monday. The chair of the parliamentary Labour party, John Cryer, said attacking former Labour staff who appeared on the documentary was “a gross misjudgment” from the party. “The bottom line is we have got racists in our party and they are not being dealt with,” he said.

The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, told the meeting he endorsed Cryer’s view and that the party should be as transparent as possible with the Equality and Human Rights Council’s investigation.

“Throw open the books, throw open the files, and access to any member of staff,” he said. “We cannot circle the wagons.”

In their letter, the four Labour peers say of antisemitism in the party: “It is now a toxic and endemic problem that we have failed to eradicate.

“It is deeply saddening, but not surprising, that three of our valued colleagues recently resigned the Labour Lords whip. The scale of abuse that they and others have suffered is heartbreaking.”

They also criticise the party’s “heartbreaking” reaction to the Panorama allegations. They say: “Whilst there may be genuine concerns about the making of the programme, the accounts of members and former staff [were] powerful and shaming. We understand that any employer requires former staff not to disclose sensitive data, but non-disclosure agreements should never be used to silence criticism or to avoid embarrassment – especially by the Labour party.”

A party source rebuffed the claim that it had attacked whistleblowers. “Former staff members made a number of untrue allegations,” the source said. “It is not blowing the whistle to make allegations that are false and politically motivated.”

In their letter, the peers make a three-pronged offer to Corbyn of help to tackle the problem, saying a small panel from the Lords could review the Panorama allegations and report back to the leader, national executive committee and wider party.

“This would necessarily mean that they have full access to existing and former party staff, as well as all paper and electronic records,” they say.

The second offer is to draw on the trade union, legal and other experience in the group to set up a new complaints process, and the third offer is to propose how the party’s governance arrangements could be improved to foster transparency and proper decision-making.

The letter ends: “Without full openness, this is a cancer that will continue to grow – and, in hurting us, it will most hurt those that need a Labour government.”

Meanwhile, more than 200 former and current Labour staffers demanded an explanation from party bosses over the treatment of the Panorama whistleblowers.

The staffers wrote to Corbyn asking for more support for whistleblowers after the programme in a letter coordinated by the former MEP candidate Amy Fowler. It says staff watched the programme on Wednesday night with “alarm and anxiety” and that the party’s response has been “to smear Jewish victims, and former staff, accusing them of acting in bad faith”.

It says: “The way the party has threatened and denigrated these whistleblowers is appalling, hypocritical and a total betrayal of Labour’s core values. Exposing racism and corruption represents Labour values in action, and these whistleblowers should be thanked, not demonised.”

It also addresses a series of questions to Corbyn about the extent of his knowledge of any interference in antisemitism cases and the workplace atmosphere in the party.

“The crisis has moved beyond a question of rules and disciplinary processes, to a question of a political culture, and crucially, leadership,” the letter says. “As its leader, the moral responsibility for Labour’s antisemitism crisis ultimately sits with you. Own that responsibility, or give it away to someone who will.”

Labour staffers in the GMB union have also submitted a motion for discussion at their branch meeting this week, demanding an apology for the party’s response and condemning “obscene threats of legal action”.

The motion, which will be debated on Thursday, condemns the Labour press office’s Twitter response to the programme and says it was “unacceptable for an employee’s workload or the culture of an organisation to cause staff to have breakdowns or to contemplate suicide as several whistleblowers claimed on the programme”.

Corbyn visited Labour HQ and spoke to staff on Monday morning, although a source said it was not a formal address. A Labour spokesman said there had been no attempt to discredit any Jewish member experiencing antisemitism but defended the party’s right to attack comments made by former staff which it considered to be inaccurate.

“Our response highlighted the Panorama team inventing a quote, editing emails and making no serious attempt to understand the party’s procedures for dealing with antisemitism,” the spokesman said.

“A number of claims made in the Panorama programme by former staff members are inaccurate and some of the individuals have a clear record of political opposition or hostility to the Labour leadership.”

Last Wednesday, Labour’s general secretary, Formby, wrote to all staff about the Panorama programme, saying she knew some would be “distressed” by the programme and the ensuing coverage and that the party had full confidence in them.

Related: Labour can effect positive change, but not while its internal politics are so toxic | John Harris

A party source also said it was wrong to link the legal threats made by the party against some individuals to the Panorama programme. “The letter was sent several months ago. It was not about antisemitism and was unrelated to the Panorama programme, which the party did not know about at the time,” the source said.

The BBC has defended the Panorama documentary. A spokesman said: “The BBC stands by its journalism and we completely reject any accusations of bias or dishonesty. The investigation was not pre-determined, it was driven by the evidence. The outcome shows the serious questions facing the Labour party and its leadership on this issue. The programme adhered to the BBC’s editorial guidelines, including contacting the Labour party in advance of the broadcast for a full right of reply.”