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Wednesday February 27 | 2019
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Anti-semitism campaign chief says Labour Party ‘cannot be salvaged’ By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk THE former chairman of the Tonbridge & Malling Labour Party, who is a leading activist in the fight to uncover antisemitism, has said the party is ‘institutionally racist’ and ‘cannot be salvaged’. Euan Philipps stepped down in April last year in protest at the lack of action being taken to stamp out anti-Jewish racism in the national party. He was accused by the borough’s executive of being an ‘internet troll’. He has given his backing to the nine Labour MPs who have stood down from
the party for the same reason – eight of them joining the newly formed Independence Group alongside Conservative MPs who are disaffected with the Brexit negotiations.
‘In the party they are closing ranks and circling the wagons’ Two years ago he set up the campaign group Labour Against Anti-Semitism [LAAS], which has calling for allegations to be investigated by the party. LAAS has reported more than 6,000 cases involving 1,200 party members to
Labour’s Compliance Unit, and has a backlog of 4,000 still to be processed. “The Independent Group has our full support,” he told the Times. “It’s clear the situation has reached breaking point. The whole organisation is institutionally racist, and the structures are in place to protect the members. “The Independents have accepted that there is no way the Labour party can be salvaged. The situation is like the Metropolitan Police in the 1990s. “There has to be a will from the top down to change, but in the Met the officers protected their colleagues. In the Labour Party they are closing ranks and circling the wagons.”
Two weeks ago, under pressure from MPs, Labour’s General Secretary Jennie Formby finally released official figures of the disciplinary action taken by the party’s National Executive and National Constitutional Committees. She said 673 complaints had been received from Labour members between April 2018 and last month, with 96 members suspended and 12 expelled from the party. But Mr Philipps insisted not enough progress is being made, saying: “Jennie Formby’s lack of action on this issue means she should resign.
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