Labour receives long-awaited report into antisemitism dossier leak
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Labour has received the long-awaited Forde report into the leaking of an antisemitism dossier.
The party’s general secretary was due to take the document – understood to be 138 pages long – to a meeting of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) at 12pm on Tuesday, and recommend that it should be published as soon as possible.
Martin Forde QC, a barrister and former independent adviser to the Windrush compensation scheme, was chosen by the NEC to chair an inquiry into the “circumstances, contents and release” of the dossier in 2020.
The leaking of the 860-page document more than two years ago reopened divisions within the party.
It found “no evidence” of antisemitism being handled differently from other complaints and blamed “factional opposition” towards former leader Jeremy Corbyn for hampering efforts to tackle the crisis.
Allies of Mr Corbyn used the dossier to say elements of the party undermined his leadership.
Labour was forced to defend its data protection handling and work with the Information Commissioner’s Office over the leak.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Labour’s general secretary David Evans has now received the Forde report and he will be taking it to today’s National Executive Committee meeting with a clear recommendation that the NEC agree the publication of the report as soon as possible today.”
The NEC meeting was due to begin at 12pm.
In March this year, Mr Forde wrote to Mr Evans to tell him the content of his report was finalised, and all that was still to be undertaken was “detailed checking for legal and factual accuracy prior to publication”.
