Labour has dropped a long-running legal case estimated to cost over a million pounds against five Jeremy Corbyn-era aides.
The former party staff, including the ex-leader’s chief-of-staff Kaire Murphy and director of communications Seumas Milne, had been accused of leaking a controversial report about anti-Semitism in the party.
Throughout the four-year row all the aides have denied any involvement in the leak of the 860-page document, which contained hundreds of WhatsApp messages. They had previously said they would “vigorously defend themselves” in a High Court action.
But in a statement on Thursday, Labour said they had “discontinued” the legal dispute – which has been estimated to cost the party around £1.5million. Carter-Ruck, the lawyers representing the former staff members, said in a statement: “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.”
An ex-Shadow Cabinet Minister 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.” They added the dropping of the case was a “huge embarrassment for the party”.
The left-wing campaign group Momentum responded: “What a gigantic waste of members’ money from Starmer’s Labour. Millions of pounds that could have been spent on campaigning in key seats have instead been poured down the drain, all driven by factional obsession.”
In April 2020 Mr Starmer, who had just won the Labour leadership contest, announced an inquiry into the leak of the sensitive document. It alleged Labour staff hostile to Mr Corbyn’s leadership conspired to undermine his bid to win the 2017 general election and the party’s handling of anti-Semitism complaints.
The Forde Report – published two years later – investigated both the contents of the report as well as the circumstances in which this was prepared and put into the public domain. It said it “could not identify the source of the leak”, although acknowledged its inquiries were “incomplete” as there were further interviews they wished to carry out and further documents they would have liked to have examined.
Martin Forde KC, the report’s author, said: “It is a great shame that money has been spent on legal fees that could have been spent on the General Election.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “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.”