Unease in Labour NEC as expelled party members’ appeals all rejected | Labour

Labour has so far rejected all appeals it has dealt with by members expelled for breaking party rules, its governing body has revealed, prompting questions over the fairness of the disciplinary process.

Party officials told the national executive committee (NEC) that 62 applications for appeal had been judged to have failed by the independent law firm that advises on complaints.

Seven more appeals that were believed by the law firm to have some chance of success were referred to the party’s national constitutional committee (NCC), which deals with disciplinary matters, and were subsequently rejected. A further 95 appeals have yet to be assessed.

The Guardian understands that most of the individuals who have been expelled were found to have expressed support for organisations that have been proscribed, including Labour Against the Witchhunt, which questions the party’s efforts to fight antisemitism. All requests for appeals are assessed against the party’s rules by an independent firm to determine if the request satisfies one or more of the grounds of the appeal as set out in the party’s rules.

Labour sources say the “rigorous process is led by evidence at all stages, and is crucial to the work undertaken … to rid the party of antisemitism”.

Ann Black, an NEC member and former chair of Labour’s national policy forum, claimed that members of the governing body representing different wings of the party were uneasy about the handling of appeals.

“Unease extends beyond the usual suspects, and loyal mainstream members see them as continuing the factional behaviour so deplored in the Forde report,” Black said in her report of an NEC meeting.

“The answer seemed to be yes, though some felt the party should do more to rebut charges of ‘Stalinism’ … I am not convinced that an appeal process with a 100% rejection rate is a meaningful enhancement of members’ rights.”

Last year Martin Forde KC, the senior lawyer who carried out an inquiry into the party’s culture, deemed that Labour’s disciplinary systems were not fit for purpose and were exploited by different factions.

Labour says it has made substantial changes to its complaints procedures since Starmer became leader, ensuring every complaints decision is referred to a new independent review board consisting of external lawyers with no connection to the party to review rulings, and introducing an independent complaints board, designed to improve confidence in the system among MPs and the party membership.

Martin Abrams, who sits on Momentum’s national coordinating group, accused Starmer of overseeing a “McCarthyite purge of the left”, claiming members who had been expelled for liking social media posts had not been given a fair hearing.

“These are deeply worrying revelations … a 100% expulsion appeals rejection rate and an Orwellian retroactive auto-expulsion process in which party members are being expelled just for having liked a social media post from a banned group even before it was banned.”

In her NEC report, Black pointed to a meeting held in September 2021 when the former chair Alice Perry said members of the ruling body were given “reassurance” after they asked party officials whether it would take “more than liking” a social media post of an organisation proscribed by the party to be expelled.

Labour officials are understood to be considering whether applications to rejoin could be considered two years after expulsion, which could give former members a chance to “demonstrate renewed commitment” to the party.

At the same meeting, the NEC found disciplinary cases involving antisemitism were still “too high at 40%” of all cases but they figure was slowly starting to fall, although it was unclear to what level.

After the party was taken out of special measures by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in March, Labour said it had complied with the body’s programme for change, including clearing a backlog of antisemitism complaints, changing its complaints handling processes and setting up independent processes.

The party received a “highly unusual” amount of complaints from members over social media graphics it shared before the local elections that suggested Rishi Sunak did not support jailing child abusers.

NEC members also raised ongoing concerns over an “under-reporting of Islamophobia and anti-black racism”, which has led some to warn of a perception of a hierarchy of racism operating within the party.