“Forde has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the Leadership’s response to his report… Labour had attempted to ‘gag’ him with a letter claiming he was acting against the Party’s interest” – Rachel Garnham
Rachel Garnham explains how the lessons of the Forde Report aren’t going away.
Nothing has been learnt
Four years on from the leaked report revealing the horrendous behaviour of the Labour bureaucracy in the early years of Jeremy Corbyn’s Leadership, and despite the Forde report two years ago proposing a series of recommendations to address the systemic issues of racism, misogyny, and the monoculture of Labour’s workplace, the Labour Leadership’s behaviour in the run-up to this year’s General Election (GE) showed that zero lessons have been learned and the factionalism, rule-breaking, and institutional racism is worse than ever.
Despite claims by Labour that many of Forde’s recommendations have been implemented, all the evidence suggests that fundamental issues remain.
And Martin Forde has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the Leadership’s response to his report. On 19th June 2024, The Independent reported Labour had attempted to ‘gag’ Forde with a letter claiming he was acting against the Party’s interest. He noted:
“I’m a private individual; they can’t silence me. I fundamentally object to people saying to me, ‘You don’t know how to behave as a professional’. I’m afraid that Black professionals get it all the time.”
Continuing discrimination
The Forde report highlighted the completely dysfunctional complaints process inherited by Corbyn’s leadership, the lack of engagement with Jewish Voice for Labour and issues with the antisemitism training introduced, lack of transparency in recruitment, and serious problems of discrimination, with evidence of unacceptable incidents of racism, sexism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The ongoing suspension and disenfranchisement of CLPs in areas with large Muslim populations such as Luton, Peterborough, and Newham is not going to help address Labour’s loss of voters from Black and Asian communities seen at the GE. An Ipsos ‘mega-poll’ for The Independent showed Labour’s support among ethnic minority voters has fallen by 18 percentage points to 46%, compared to 2019.
Further evidence that Forde has been ignored comes in the failure to implement the Rule Book with respect to new democratic structures for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic members and Disabled members. No conferences and no committees are in sight, despite their presence in the Rule Book.
Furthermore, head office has chipped away at Labour’s women’s organisation, seemingly pretending the elected National Women’s Committee and Women’s Conference Arrangements Committee do not exist, ignoring policy passed, and squeezing any democratic functioning into as few minutes as they can get away with.
We still have work to do
The horrendous treatment of Diane Abbott, Faiza Shaheen, and Lloyd Russell Moyle, alongside the denial of members’ rights to select the candidates of their choice in CLPs across Britain, demonstrate there is much work to do to fulfil Labour’s claim to be a democratic socialist party. However, Diane’s success against the odds in remaining as a Labour MP, against the will of Starmer and his coterie, demonstrates the power of campaigning and that victories for the left are possible.
Labour is much more likely to be successful in government if we live our values, implement the Rule Book, and recognise that (as the Rule Book says) by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone. This means listening to members, reinstating abandoned elements of Party democracy, such as democratic selections and the equality structures, and genuinely paying attention to the wise advice of Martin Forde.
- Rachel Garnham is a member of Mid Bedfordshire CLP and is Co-Chair of CLPD.
- This article was originally published in CLPD’s Campaign Briefing Newsletter. Read it in full here.
- You can also read Labour Outlook’s 2024 Autumn Conference bulletin here.
