Senior lawyer urges UK Labour to tighten disciplinary system after antisemitism row

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Sir Keir Starmer must introduce a “fully independent” disciplinary system for Labour members to counter claims the party uses complaints to target left-wingers, the senior lawyer behind a review into racism in the party has said.

Martin Forde KC, commissioned by Starmer to author a 2022 report on the party’s internal culture, urged Labour to employ independent arbiters to deal with complaints against MPs and candidates, instead of party apparatchiks.

Forde told the Financial Times: “If you want people to have confidence in your disciplinary system, you need to have safeguards in place whereby you can go to those that are complaining about factionalism and say, ‘Well it can’t be factionalist, because an independent lawyer looked at the facts’.”

His intervention came after long-simmering tensions between the party’s ruling centrist wing and hobbled left erupted once again this week in the wake of a row over the disciplinary treatment of Azhar Ali, who has been dropped as Labour’s candidate in the upcoming Rochdale by-election.

Ali was initially defended by Labour after a leaked recording of a local grassroots party meeting revealed he claimed Israel allowed Hamas to attack on October 7 as a pretext for invading Gaza. He has apologised for repeating the conspiracy theory.

Momentum, the left-wing campaign group within Labour, argued Ali was treated more leniently than left-wing MPs in an example of “blatant double standards” because he was a factional ally of the current leadership.

Labour frontbenchers insisted Ali was not initially suspended because of his swift apology and his past record as an ally of the Jewish community, including setting up the group Muslims Against Anti-Semitism.

The comments also emerged after it was too late for Labour to pick a different candidate in the by-election under electoral rules.

Ali was…