Exclusive: Labour Reinstates Ex-Officials Suspended Over 'Leaks' Dossier
A number of Labour officials suspended over the contents of a damning leaked report have been let back into the party, HuffPost UK understands.
Unison assistant general secretary Emilie Oldknow, once thought to have been Keir Starmer’s choice for Labour general secretary, was among those suspended last year after the so-called “Labour leaks” dossier emerged.
But after a meeting of the disputes panel on January 22, several of the officials have seen their suspensions lifted. Patrick Heneghan, the party’s ex-elections chief, is not among them.
The decision is likely to rile left-wing members, who believe the report shows so-called moderate staffers used their roles to dismantle Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Many had called for Oldknow, the party’s governance chief until 2018, and other officials to be kicked out permanently. The leaked 860-page report revealed countless private WhatsApp messages between former officials, including Oldknow and Heneghan – many of them derogatory – about staff, members and pro-Corbyn MPs.
The dossier was pulled together during former general secretary Jennie Formby’s time in charge, and was leaked in full last year.
It was said to be aimed at informing the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into anti-Semitism within the party, and admitted “mistakes, deficiencies, and missed opportunities” in relation to handling complaints.
But one of its central claims was that moderate officials, including Oldknow and Heneghan, working under ex-party chief Iain McNicol, tried to undermine Corbyn during the 2017 election.
Critics of the report claimed it was a skewed, politically-driven and selective account of events, and an attempt by those loyal to Corbyn to deflect criticism over the party’s handling of anti-Semitism.
Starmer ordered an independent investigation into how the report was leaked as well as its contents, and in June several officials were suspended pending investigation.
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