I wrote to the Forde Inquiry, the Labour Party’s response to the leaking of its internal investigation into how it dealt with anti-semitism complaints. The terms of reference allow the Forde Inquiry panel to look at any issue it chooses. I have written to them and asked that it considers the following,
- Did anyone unnamed in the report take part in the activities identified by the report? If so who?
- Did ‘improper behaviour’ occur during the decisions taken in the selection process for candidates for the 2017 General Election? If so, by whom?
- To what extent did the ‘improper behaviour’ identified by the report also apply to complaints of bullying, slander, racism and the manipulation of selection processes for council and MEP candidates?
- To what extent were the selections, staff appointments and performance management processes improperly influenced by racism or factional advantage?
- Were Party funds spent in accordance with the Party’s financial control procedures and correctly accounted for? (Why did the Party run a £1.4m surplus in 2017, a year in which a General Election was held?)
If for whatever reason, it decides not to investigate these areas, I would ask that it highlights them as matters of concern and recommend that these areas are investigated by follow up independent panels.
Originally published at https://davelevy.info on June 21, 2020.
