No confidence in Keir Starmer!
No more settlements with witch-hunters!

The motion is available online here.

1. This branch/CLP notes with great concern: 

a) Keir Starmer’s July 22 2020 apology and payment of ‘damages’ in six figures to the former Labour Party employees who participated in the dreadful and one-sided BBC Panorama programme on alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party.

b) That the legal advice received by the Labour Party reportedly stated that the party had a very good chance to win the libel case pursued by the ‘whistleblowers’ featured in the programme.
c) That in the wake of this settlement, there are reports of “at least 42 further civil claims” against the party (Daily Telegraph July 24 2020), among them from BBC journalist John Ware and former general secretary Iain McNicol.

d) That the settlement has been used to demand that Starmer withdraws the whip from Jeremy Corbyn.

e) That the ‘leaked report’ quite clearly shows that there was an organised and concerted campaign by right-wingers in the party to undermine and sabotage Jeremy Corbyn and the left. Some of those actively involved in the campaign have now been paid off by Starmer.

2) This branch/CLP believes that:

a) This is a clear misuse of party funds and an insult to all Labour members. We are outraged that our dues have been used to pay ‘damages’ to people on the right of the party, some of whom have used their privileged position in the party to mobilise not just against Corbyn, but the whole party and its members. They have brought the party into disrepute.

b) This settlement gives us even less confidence that the result of the Forde Enquiry into the leaked Report will be anything other than a politically motivated whitewash.

c) Keir Starmer has proven that he is not acting on behalf of the members and we therefore wish to express that we have no confidence in him.

3) We therefore call on the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs to fight hard for the following course of action:

a) The immediate publication of the full legal advice received over the BBC Panorama “whistleblower” libel case.

b) The immediate publication of the ‘leaked Report’ and all emails, Whatsapp messages and other relevant data on which it is based.

c) An urgent review of why members’ money could be spent on such a questionable and clearly political settlement.

d) A rejection to settle any further claims and a commitment to fight those suing the party politically.

e) The repudiation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) misdefinition of anti-Semitism, along with its so called examples, which deliberately conflates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism;

f) The repudiation of the Board of Deputies’ ‘Ten Pledges’, to which Keir Starmer has signed up to. They are an attack on free speech, and, if fully implemented, would lead to massive (self-)censorship and the suspensions and expulsions of the thousands of members who dare to stand in solidarity with those wrongly accused of antisemitism, including Chris Williamson and Marc Wadsworth. The BoD and other pro-Zionist organisations would decide who can and cannot be a member of the Labour Party, as they demand a “life time ban” from the party for “repeat offenders, such as Ken Livingstone or Jackie Walker” – both of whom have fought against racism for their entire life.