Labour drops lawsuit against ex-staffers accused of leaking antisemitism report

Labour has withdrawn a costly lawsuit against five former staffers accused of leaking an internal report on antisemitism and “conspiring” against Keir Starmer.

The legal action is expected to have cost the Labour party more than £1.5m and it was estimated the party could have spent almost £900,000 more, according to documents shown in open court last year.

Ex-staff members, including Jeremy Corbyn’s former chief of staff, Karie Murphy, and his former director of communications, Seumas Milne, have been embroiled in the bitter battle for more than four years.

All of the accused, including the three others, Georgie Robertson, Laura Murray and Harry Hayball – had “strenuously denied, and have consistently denied, any involvement or complicity in the leak whatsoever”.

A joint statement from Labour and the former staffers’ lawyers says: “The party is discontinuing its legal claims against Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne, Georgie Robertson, Harry Hayball and Laura Murray on a ‘no order as to costs’ basis. The five welcome the resolution of the claims.”

Labour officials said in a statement to the court that the five accused had “entered into a conspiracy to use unlawful means … to provide a copy (or copies) of the report to the press” to damage the party “under the leadership of its then new leader, Keir Starmer”.

The public figures do not reflect the total cost of the litigation to the Labour party, which is substantially higher, and do not include the five former employees’ legal costs.

A former shadow cabinet member said: “The party’s central claim – that the former staff had “conspired” to “disrupt or embarrass” Keir Starmer – demonstrates this has been a clear case of political lawfare.

“This is a huge embarrassment for the party.”

The lawsuit seemed to show divisions within the party, as members of Labour’s national executive committee and parliamentarians raised concerns about the financial risk after the ICO determined in 2022 that there was “insufficient evidence” that any of the five accused former staffers were responsible.

In April 2020, Martin Forde KC was commissioned by the NEC to investigate the leaked report and its findings, and his report, published in 2022, noted that “we could not identify the source of the leak”.

Forde had also commented on the Labour party’s litigation against the five in 2023, questioning the decision to bring the legal action and describing it as a “terrible shame”.

An NEC member from the pro-Starmer wing told the Guardian that Labour should be “questioning this monumental waste of members’ and affiliates’ money pursuing what appears to be a pointless political vendetta”. They said: “The NEC has been kept in the dark about these costs, which are spiralling out of control. Candidates will be up in arms that we are gambling with the party finances needed to win their seats. We need to have a laser focus on getting the Tories out.”