Whistleblowers to sue Labour as antisemitism row deepens

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

The Labour high command is to be sued by former employees who broke cover last week to criticise the party’s handling of cases of alleged antisemitism in a dramatic escalation of the row engulfing Jeremy Corbyn’s party.

Two of the whistleblowers who featured in last week’s explosive BBC Panorama programme entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic? – Sam Matthews and Louise Withers Green – contacted the Observer last night to say they had instructed the prominent media lawyer Mark Lewis to act on their behalf because they believed the party had defamed them in its response to their claims. Others who spoke to Panorama are also understood to be considering contacting Lewis to represent them in libel actions.

On the evening the programme was aired, a Labour spokesman said: “It appears these disaffected former officials include those who have always opposed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, worked to actively to undermine it and have both personal and political axes to grind. This throws into doubt their credibility as sources.”
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Lewis, who works for Patron Law, and is well known for his role in pursuing phone-hacking cases and for representing the family of murdered teenager Millie Dowler, said: “It is incredible that after the programme Labour wilfully attacked the whistleblowers, falsely accusing them of making deliberate, malicious representations, and misleading the public, while also calling them disaffected former officials whose credibility as sources was in doubt.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/13/whistleblowers-to-sue-labour-as-antisemitism-row-deepens

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Between Labour & Conservative there is enough incompetence in UK politics now to make Putin v happy.

[pecosbob]

2. Very timely IYAM

Just as the Torys attempt to consolidate power while enjoying minority support.

[nycbos]

5. Labour has literally been caught covering up antisemitic incidents.

Their leader has supported Hamas, a Vicar from the Church of England who said Israel was behind 9/11, honored the terrorists behind the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich.


They are being investigated by the EHRC. The whistleblowers and party members speaking out against antisemitism are facing harassment and you are concerned about the "timing"

People like you are the reason why the jews of Europe don't feel safe in their own countries.

[pecosbob]

6. I guess I did not make myself clear

that it was long past time for this to be addressed.

[nycbos]

7. My apologies

Some people are saying it should be ignored because of the Tories.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. This will be important if people thought of anti-Semitism as "real" bigotry, and Jews as important.

Bring on the excuses!

[nycbos]

4. What else do you except from the far left?

[Turin_C3PO]

8. Labour is not the far left.

It’s more of a centrist party.

[nycbos]

10. It used to be.

The fringe has taken over under Corbyn.

[Applegate]

11. Tory talking points, oh boy.

[nycbos]

12. Bye troll

[JI7]

13. +

[Turin_C3PO]

9. Despicable

what’s going on in the Labour Party. Anti-semitism needs to be treated with the same seriousness as other forms of bigotry. I’m sad to see that it appears to be on the rise in Europe and here.