Labour Party Drops Lawsuit Against Five Ex-Staffers Accused Of Leaking Report

The Labour Party has dropped its lawsuit against five ex-staffers who had been accused of leaking a controversial internal report.

"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," a joint statement by the Labour Party and Carter Ruck, released today, confirms.

Labour had asked the High Court last year to delay the full hearing in the case until at least February 2025. The BBC reported in October 2023 that Labour could face a multi-million pound legal bill and had cost the party almost £1.4m to date.

An unredacted 860-page report, entitled “The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 – 2019”, was distributed online and to journalists in April 2020.

The 'Labour leaks' report alleged that Labour Party employees who were opposed to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership worked against him, damaged the party's electoral chances and sent abusive messages about senior figures.

Some criticised the document on the basis it presented a biased view of events under Corbyn's leadership and claimed it was leaked in a bid to "smear" staffers who had exposed antisemitism in Labour.

The report was originally intended to be a submission from the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which conducted an investigation into Labour antisemitism that concluded in October 2020 and found Labour had breached the Equality Act.

On the basis of legal advice, the report was not ultimately sent to the EHRC, but the document was leaked in full. The leak prompted two investigations by Labour – one by an independent external investigator