Labour could spend £2.2 million on legal action against five of its own employees

Composite file photos of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (left, dated 08/12/19) and current leader Sir Keir Starmer (dated 20/07/20). Labour's governing body will vote on Starmer's formal proposal to block Jeremy Corbyn from running for Labour at the next general election. The Labour leader will on Tuesday put forward a motion at a meeting of the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) saying it will not endorse his predecessor. Issue date: Tuesday March 28, 2023.
Credit: PA

The Labour Party could end up spending more than £2.2million in its legal action against five of its own former employees.  

The party has taken former staff members - including Karie Murphy, who served as Jeremy Corbyn’s Chief of Staff, and Seamus Milne, Mr Corbyn’s Director of Communications and Strategy - to court after a controversial internal report on antisemitism was leaked to the media.  

The report, titled ‘The work of the Labour party’s governance and legal unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014–2019’, contained private email and WhatsApp messages between members of staff at the party.

It was intended to be submitted to the equalities watchdog which had launched an investigation into allegations of antisemitism within the party at the time. 

The report claimed that some Labour staff had worked to undermine Mr Corbyn’s leadership and it included a vast array of messages that had been sent between staff. The report also contained allegations of Islamophobia complaints being mishandled, as well as racist and sexist messages. 

Labour launched its own investigation following the leak, which took place in 2020. 

It resulted in the Forde report and the party ultimately decided to take five of it's own former employees to court over the data leak. 

According to court documents the party has already spent almost £1.4m on the case and anticipates it will spend at least another £800,000 more taking the case to trial.  

If the party were to lose the case, they would also be required to pay legal costs of the five former staff members – which would see the total cost rise further.  

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Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was criticised for doing too little to tackle antisemitism in the party. Credit: PA

The five employees have all repeatedly denied the accusations that have been made against them.  

The leak was previously investigated by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which ultimately decided not to take any action against the party. 

It also said it would not be prosecuting any individual that has been accused of being connected to the leak.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The party has conducted a wide-ranging and appropriately thorough investigation following the leak and is confident of the case it has presented to the court."

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