The prime minister writes for the JC to reflect on the five year anniversary of the EHRC report that found Labour discriminated against Jewish members
October 30, 2025 17:13
This week marks five years since the dark day when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that the Labour Party under its previous leadership had broken equality law and discriminated against our Jewish members.
This was a truly shameful day for our movement. As I reflect upon this chapter on this anniversary, on behalf of the whole Labour Party, I apologise once more that this could ever have been allowed to happen.
In order to begin the process of trying to regain the trust of the Jewish community, it was our moral duty as a party to do everything in our power to tear out antisemitism by its roots wherever we found it in our ranks.
That moral duty is why I as leader of the party accepted and then implemented the EHRC’s action plan in full, without any qualification or hesitation. And when Jeremy Corbyn rejected the report’s clear conclusions of unlawful discrimination having taken place under his leadership of the party, the Labour whip was immediately withdrawn and he was rightly not allowed to stand as a Labour candidate again. If we were to prove that the Labour Party was serious about changing there had to both be zero tolerance of the evil of antisemitism and zero tolerance of any attempt to downplay what had happened in our party. So that is what we did, and now we have made it clear that this denialism is unacceptable in our party. Although it still lurks in our politics and in the corridors of power. We will continue to do all we can to root it out of society.
After three years of humble reflection and hard graft to reform our processes and right our past failings, the EHRC in 2023 announced an end to its monitoring of the Labour Party’s handling of antisemitism cases in recognition of how we had changed. A new independent complaints process was established for all types of complaints, including antisemitism. Training on antisemitism was developed with the Jewish Labour Movement and delivered to Labour MPs, officials, party members and staff. Former Labour MPs Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger felt able to rejoin the party and at the 2024 General Election a new cohort of Jewish Labour MPs were elected, proudly standing to represent the Labour Party as Jews.
But antisemitic hate is now on the rise in wider British society and it is our national moral duty to all play our part in defeating this poison. I was in Manchester the day after the horrific terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in Judaism – and saw first-hand the fear that many Jewish people are facing. Not just on that terrible day, but in every part of their lives amid the frequency of antisemitic incidents increasing and Jewish people being more targeted by hate crime than any other minority group.
That is why I have pledged to do even more to give our Jewish communities the security they deserve. This work is underway with up to £10 million in emergency funding having been given immediately to bolster security at synagogues and schools through the Community Security Trust.
That is why we are giving the police the new powers they need to tackle protests that cause repeat disruption to communities and intimidate worshippers. The right to protest is of course a fundamental freedom in Britain and it will remain so, but this must be better balanced with the freedom of people to live their lives free of the fear that repeated protests can cause.
And that is why, following recent reports of antisemitic incidents involving doctors, I have ordered an urgent review of antisemitism and all forms of racism in the NHS. This will be led by Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism. Strengthened mandatory antisemitism and antiracism training is also being rolled out immediately across the health service, and NHS England will also review its uniform guidance to ensure patients and staff always feel respected in NHS settings.
These are important steps that will make a positive difference to Jewish people’s security and, I hope, their peace of mind. But my Labour government will never be complacent about the depth of the challenge or think that there are simple quick fixes. We fully recognise that tackling anti-Jewish hatred will require sustained work in our communities in every corner of the UK over the long term. My government is considering every possible step to build cohesion and combat extremism. No matter how long or how much effort it takes, it is our national moral duty to see it through and I pledge to you that my Labour government will never let up in leading the fight against antisemitic hatred.
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