Seven former Labour staffers are expected to settle with the party after claiming it defamed them following a BBC Panorama programme that detailed a raft of antisemitism allegations, all denied by Labour.
Sam Matthews He was Labour’s head of disputes and acting director of the governance and legal unit between 2016 and 2018, and the most prominent of the seven whistleblowers who appeared on Panorama. He claimed he witnessed “a deliberate attempt [by senior figures in the party] … to redefine what constituted modern-day antisemitism – mainly so they could let their mates off the charge”. He said he had considered suicide at his lowest ebb during the crisis.
Kat Buckingham The former chief investigator in Labour’s disputes team told Panorama that the problem of antisemitism complaints was “massive”, “real” and “wasn’t constructed by embittered old Blairites, as we were frequently described as”. She said: “It would make no difference because … we had standards, we had clear rules that we had to try and uphold.”
Mike Creighton He was director of audit and risk until 2017 and gave a contested account of an interaction with Labour’s then head of communications, Seumas Milne. Creighton said he told Milne the party should deal with top-level antisemitism cases more quickly. He also said Jeremy Corbyn should make a speech saying Israel had a right to exist, and alleged that Milne laughed at that suggestion – a claim Labour strongly denied.
Ben Westerman The only Jewish member of the disputes team, he worked as an investigations officer for a year until 2017. He said he witnessed antisemitism and harassment during his time investigating the behaviour of constituency parties. “Coming from a family with a history of oppression because they were Jews, I thought this was intolerable,” he said.
Martha Robinson One of the most junior staffers to go on the record, Robinson was a complaints administrator between 2018 and 2019. She said she spent “day after day” reading antisemitic comments from members, and claimed her recommendations for disciplinary action were often disregarded.
Dan Hogan He worked as an investigations officer in the party for two years. In the documentary, he alleged that the former general secretary Jennie Formby brought in a number of new people after her appointment who “overruled us and downgraded what should’ve been a suspension to just an investigation, or worse to just a reminder of conduct – effectively a slap on the wrist”.
Louise Withers Green A disputes officer, Green told the Guardian that a trip to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin convinced her to go public. “I wish there were more people that would speak out when things weren’t right, speak out against racism,” she said. “Even though this might be really horrible, in 30 years I’ll be really proud of myself that I’ve done it.”