The most important line in today’s EHRC report:

“Our investigation found that the Labour Party breached the Equality Act 2010 by committing unlawful harassment through the acts of its agents in *two* of the complaints we investigated.”

Two.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/investigation-into-antisemitism-in-the-labour-party.pdf

Two too many, of course but still...two. It continues:

“These included using antisemitic tropes & suggesting that complaints of antisemitism were fake or smears. As these people were acting as agents of the Labour Party, Labour was legally responsible for their conduct.”

It goes on” A further 18 ‘borderline’ cases. In these cases, there was not enough evidence to conclude that the Labour Party was legally responsible for the conduct of the individual. These were people such as local councillors, local candidates &...” >

Constituency Labour Party office holders.

• In many more files, evidence of antisemitic conduct by an ‘ordinary’ member of the Labour Party. These members did not hold any office or role, therefore the Labour Party could not be held directly...” >

responsible for their conduct under the Equality Act 2010.

In light of our position as a regulator, we only made findings of unlawful conduct in cases that were sufficiently clear-cut, in Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998 terms.”

The EHRC isn’t VAR. >

What they’ve produced is an entirely reasonable, cautious document saying a major organisation had failings, that it improved, and it still has a way to go.

Solidarity to anyone who feels like crap today, particularly Jewish comrades. To anyone gloating about what they do/don’t find in report, don’t. Just stick to what is there rather than spin.

I’m grateful to live in a country where a public body produces a report so diligently.