View all newsletters
Sign up to our newsletters

Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Politics
25 May 2018updated 28 Jun 2021 4:38am

Jewish leaders are right to worry that Labour’s internal processes aren’t fit for purpose

The incentives on political parties to go soft on their own supporters are always too high.

By Stephen Bush

LBC’s Theo Usherwood has got hold of the transcripts from Ken Livingstone’s final appearance in front of Labour’s national constitutional committee, the party’s top disciplinary body, and one person in particular is causing distress to Jewish community leaders: NCC member Russell Cartwright, who asked a series of softball questions and heavily implied people who had criticized Livingstone’s remarks of being motivated by anti-Labour animus.

Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, has said that the leaked remarks have left him concerned about the impartiality of Labour’s internal processes. And he’s right to worry.

The value of the leaked transcript is that it demonstrates something that is intuitively obvious but hard to prove: that no political institution will ever effectively be able to root out bigotry in its ranks. It’s not that wider society is any less prone to bullying, sexual harassment, Islamophobia or anti-Semitism, all of which we have seen brought to light in the major political parties in recent years. But the incentive for cover-up in any organisation that you might call “mission-based” – whether that mission is to elect Labour or Conservative MPs or to reduce poverty, such as Oxfam – is considerably higher. The incentives of a stationery company not to discipline a manager repeating anti-Semitic tropes on Facebook are pretty low, but the incentives on one political party not to expel supporters of its faction or its elected officials is high.

And the incentives in a political party are considerably higher than in a charity. Bluntly, no HR department outside a political party is dependent for its continued success and the achievement of its ambitions on the votes of the people it is nominally in charge of disciplining: the HR processes of political parties are. That’s one reason Labour has been so poor at tackling anti-Semitism and one reason why the Conservative Party reacted so poorly to bullying within the party’s youth wing.

In a sense, Cartwright’s questions are the least troubling manifestation of that problem because the bias is so blatant that it is easy to identify and criticise. But as Helen and I wrote when the MeToo movement first emerged, most of the time, the problem manifests in a more subtle way.

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

That’s why, until the demand of Bex Bailey and other campaigners in the Labour party for an independent complaints procedure staffed not by party officials but by an independent organisation, contracted in to investigate and bring sanctions against party members, are met; the political parties will continue to disappoint anyone looking for serious action against these problems.

Content from our partners
Development finance reform: the key to climate action
Individually rare, collectively common – how do we transform the lives of people with rare diseases?
Future proofing the NHS

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU