The Forde Report

After the leak of the document entitled ‘The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014-2019′, the Starmer led NEC commissioned an enquiry into the leak. I documented the report in an article called Labour and that leak on this wiki. As I said then, in July 2022,  Labour’s narrative seems to be, it’s all over now, Kier has fixed it; I consider this to be nonsense. I revised this page in Apr 2025 to include a detailed mirror archive of my document collection on the report. Also on my blog, I tracked the road to the report and commented on the report itself. I am unhappy that they are so weak on the criticising the proscription process as a platform for continued factionalism.

The page now consists of an archive index and a list of URLs that I assembled to help write my articles and form my views.

Archives | Contemporaneous Comments

In early January, synonymously with Liz Truss re-igniting the issue of Corbyn’s suspension the Forde Report was taken down from Labour’s web site and there is/was no copy on the wayback machine.

My Archives

I made a mirror! I also developed and extended the mirror hosting page and made torrents, which I published on https://dfl.ddns.net. (I plan to change this site substantially and so its content is reproduced immediately below.) It now contains links and mirrors to Labour’s remediation plan.

The Forde Report

The Forde Report is the culmination of an independent investigation commissioned by the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in 2020 to investigate both the contents of an internal report leaked into the public domain, as well as the circumstances in which it was prepared and put into the public domain.

1. The Forde Report 18.7.2022 (https .pdf)
2. The Forde Report 18.7.2022 (html wayback machine)
3. The Forde Report (.torrent)

The Labour Party published its action plan on the Forde Report

1. The Party’s web page (https) and a mirror, (.zip) & (.torrent)
2. Their spreadsheet responses, i.e. done, in progress, and superseded, these are .pdf and available here as a (.zip) and as a (.torrent)

In March 23, Dr Forde gave several interviews on the Party’s response to the report, and the Party amended its web page to include apologies from Starmer and Evans. The Party’s web page (https) remains the same but I have created a second mirror, (.zip) & (.torrent)

On other sources,

The report cross references other previous inquiries,

A4.11 … we have reviewed the report by Baroness Jan Royall entitled Allegations of Anti-Semitism Oxford University Labour Club, May 2016 (the Royall Report), the Shami Chakrabati Report, June 2016 (the Chakrabati Report), the report of Lord Kerslake, entitled Independent Organisational Review of the Labour Party: Becoming a Well Run and Winning Organisation, October 2020 (the Kerslake Review), Labour Together’s 2019 Election Review (the Labour Together Report), and the action plan agreed between the Party and the EHRC.

I also found, Labour List on Evan’s launching the Kerslake Review and their comments on the   Labour Together report

Comment on Release.

I also wrote about the leak on my blog. It was released during the morning and this is what we have at lunch time today.

1. What is the Forde report on the Labour party – and why has it taken so long? at the Guardian, subtitled,Legal action among setbacks slowing publication of inquiry into bullying, racism and sexism, actually the slowdown was caused by a desire not pollute possible criminal investigations by the ICO.
2. Report commissioned by Keir Starmer highlights ‘toxicity on both sides’ under Jeremy Corbyn
3. Ash Sarker on Twitter, “The findings of the Forde report are astonishing – and vindicate those who tried to blow the whistle on discriminatory practices, and factional weaponisation of antisemitism, by senior Labour staff hostile to Corbyn.” and Aaron Bastani, who is obviously working through it.
4. NEC finally to see what’s left of Forde report….. from Skwawkbox, his previous  and also at https://skwawkbox.org/tag/forde-report/
5. The Labour Muslim Network select their highlights, on twitter, unrolled and on their web site.
6. JVL’s 1st thoughts, which also contains a bibliography.
7. The BBC Report, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62226042, where they report a Labour spokeperson as saying, “Keir Starmer is now in control and has made real progress in ridding the party of the destructive factionalism and unacceptable culture that did so much damage previously and contributed to our [general election] defeat in 2019.” I have to say, I don’t see it that way.
8. Jeremy Corbyn on Facebook, and twitter., “The appalling behaviour that Forde calls out, including the repulsive racism and sexism shown to Diane Abbott and others, should have no place in a progressive party. Toxic factionalism is far from over – nor are persistent problems of racism and sexism – and action must be taken, as Forde makes clear.”
9. Mike Phipps at Labour Hub, good précis, not strong enough on the next steps
10. Jess Barnard, points at a Tribune Magazine article.
11. Daniel Finn at Jacobin, The Forde Report Has Exposed the Rotten Foundations of Keir Starmer’s Leadership
12. Senior Momentum officers speak.
13. Heather Mendick calls out the difference in treatment between herself who merely foreshadowed Forde’s statement that much of the furore around anti-semitism in the Party was factionally motivated. It would also seem that CAAS and the Labour right have fallen out with each other.
14. The Forde report does not spell the end of Labour factionalism, Elliot Chappel in the Guardian, “The inescapable conclusion of this report, however, is “job not done”. Forde identified problems with the complaints process and how the party approaches racism more broadly, and made clear that culture change is fatally undermined by factionalism – in short, it is not something that can be solved quickly. And, given the reaction to the report, that factionalism does not show signs of subsiding any time soon.”
15. Phil BC at Tribune, “The Forde Report’s Villains Now Control the Labour Party”
16. The independent reports, “The Forde report proves that Labour’s sickness is down to its right wing”.

Labour’s narrative seems to be, it’s all over now, Kier has fixed it!

Forde’s Comments

It would seem that Forde himself is not happy with the response to his report and started giving interviews, possibly most importantly at a Compass event. I found the video by querying youtube with the string “compass forde report”. He also spoke to Al-jazeera and Novara Media. Middle Eastern Eye.