OPINION: Labour’s reputation cannot be restored simply by saying ‘sorry’

A reputation cannot be fully restored simply by a few words, but for me and others involved in the Panorama ‘Is Labour Anti-Semitic’ programme, hearing the Labour Party describe the allegations against us as “untrue and defamatory” is a first step.

I have initiated many legal proceedings on behalf of the Party. Usually for the National Executive Committee in defence of one or other arcane paragraph from the rulebook. Or as a result of a breach of election law by our opponents.

I never expected that I would initiate libel proceedings against Labour, the Party I’ve been a member of for over 40 years and served as an employee for 25 years.

I’m not Jewish. When discussing antisemitism, I don’t even claim “some of my best friends are Jewish” (although some are). Being shown the daily experiences of many Jews, from casual, throwaway antisemitism to deliberately hateful and hurtful vitriol was a true eye-opener for me. That these were the experiences of members of the Labour Party, perpetrated in part by voices within the Labour Party, amplified by social media, and then discounted and diminished by people supposedly without an antisemitic bone in their body was bewildering. Jaw-dropping.

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When I retired from working for the Labour Party in 2017 it was with an absolute recognition that we, as a Party, had failed to stem a rising tide of antisemitism. But I knew I left behind a team of people committed to tackling this stain on the reputation of one of the great political parties. And then, one by one, they too left or were invited to leave.

We all became observers of the failure of the Labour Party.

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So when a journalist of extremely high repute, John Ware, gave me and others the opportunity to share our experiences on Panorama it was a real chance to open the eyes of others. To finally prompt a public acknowledgement of the scale of the problem and a commitment to real action from the Party. None of us, the whistleblowers, expected the Labour Party to welcome our comments. But nor did we expect the Party to instigate a campaign to destroy our reputations before the programme had even been aired. This campaign continued for almost a year, right up to Sir Keir Starmer being elected Labour Leader.

None of us took action against the Labour Party lightly. We had years of loyal service between us. I had served eight Leaders, and eight General Secretaries. We all worked endless hours to get Labour in to power, to “seek the trust of the people to govern”. The accusation of being bad faith actors with the intention of harming Labour could not have been more damaging and could not be left unchallenged. We remain grateful for the many, many messages of support that sustained us through what was an extraordinarily difficult and debilitating time, and of course to our legal team.

That it took nearly a year and a change of leadership for the Party to recognise the harm that they had caused, in itself caused more harm to the individual whistleblowers.

Undoubtedly it caused even more harm to members of the Jewish community who had always previously regarded the Labour Party as a friend and safe haven.

It is, therefore, with some relief that this particular chapter is coming to a close with the Labour Party withdrawing the accusations against us as false and defamatory. I am pleased that Keir Starmer is already showing the leadership that has helped bring this about, but it’s clearly not the end of the story. There is still much more to be done to eradicate the stain of antisemitism from the Labour Party and I hope that Keir Starmer and others are successful in that task to which he has committed himself and the Party. I have no doubt that the whistleblowers, reputations restored, will stand ready to help.

• Mike Creighton was the Labour Party’s director of audit and risk 2009-17