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The Labour Party had become “an incubator for this poison” of antisemitism under its former leadership, Sir Keir Starmer has said – as he vowed that the changes made to ensure “zero tolerance” are “permanent”.

The Labour leader’s party is no longer being monitored by the equalities watchdog after making the changes demanded over its law-breaking handling of antisemitism under Sir Keir’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) had been scrutinising the party since ruling it was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination more than two years ago.

But the watchdog has said that, under Sir Keir’s leadership, the party has improved its complaints and training procedures to protect current and future party members.

Sir Keir said the judgment that the necessary reforms have been made was an “important moment in the history of the Labour Party”.

Writing for The Times newspaper, the Labour leader described antisemitism as “an evil”, adding: “Indeed, it can be those who call themselves ‘anti-racist’ who are most blind to it.”

The EHRC’s report into the Labour Party was published in October 2020 and detailed the “breakdown of trust between the party, its Jewish members and the wider Jewish community”.

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Describing the investigation as “a humbling and painful experience” for his party, Sir Keir reflected on his decision to accept the EHRC’s report in full and create a “zero-tolerance of antisemitism”, adding: “We also had to be clear that anyone who did not accept those findings had no place in the party.”

The EHRC’s report was critical of the party’s handling of antisemitism complaints under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Immediately after its publication, Mr Corbyn claimed “the scale of the problem” of Labour antisemitism allegations was “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents”.

He also said he did not accept all of the EHRC report’s findings in comments that prompted his suspension from the party.

Mr Corbyn remains a party member but now sits as an independent MP.

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer attend a general election campaign meeting in Harlow, Britain November 5, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Sir Keir’s predecessor subsequently sought to clarify his remarks and a five-member disciplinary panel of Labour’s National Executive Committee decided that he should be reinstated.

But Sir Keir stuck to his decision after facing pressure from angry MPs not to allow Mr Corbyn back into the parliamentary party.

Despite the end of the probe into the party by the EHRC, the Labour leader wrote in The Times that he is “under no illusion that the job is done”.

“This is not a moment to celebrate. Instead, it is a moment of reflection; a time to apologise once again,” he said.

“Ultimately, our success will be judged not by me or by the EHRC or by how much effort we put in, but by whether those who were so badly let down feel ready to call Labour their party again.”

‘Nobody is forcing you to stay’

The Labour Party has implemented a programme of change since the report was published in 2020.

It includes clearing the backlog of antisemitism complaints, transforming the party’s complaints handling processes and ensuring two independent complaints boards have been fully operational since April 2022.

It also includes terminating the membership of hundreds of individuals who expressed a desire to “campaign against the recommendations of the EHRC report”.

Sir Keir said: “The changes we have made aren’t just fiddling around the edges or temporary fixes. They are permanent, fundamental, irrevocable.

“The Labour Party I lead today is unrecognisable from 2019.

“There are those who don’t like that change, who still refuse to see the reality of what had gone on under the previous leadership. To them I say in all candour: we are never going back.

“If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to stay.”

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Antisemitism ‘on the rise’ – Spielberg

Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) national secretary Adam Langleben said: “We welcome the EHRC giving Labour a clean bill of health.”

Mr Langleben said the Labour Party was in “moral turpitude and political denial” in 2019, adding: “Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, it had become an unsafe space for Jews.”

Mr Langleben said “the Labour Party we see today is unrecognisable from what the party had become under Corbyn”.

He continued: “Jews can once again call Labour their natural home and have no concerns about voting for it.

“That this is the case is a testament to the leadership shown by Keir Starmer.”

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How did your MP vote on Labour’s welfare bill?

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How did your MP vote on Labour's welfare bill?

Labour’s welfare reforms bill has passed, with 335 MPs voting in favour and 260 against.

It came after the government watered down the bill earlier this evening, making a dramatic last-minute concession to the demands of would-be rebel MPs who were concerned about the damage the policy would do to disabled people.

The concessions could end up leaving the government with £5.5bn to make up from either tax rises or cuts elsewhere.

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The government has a working majority of 166, so it would have taken 84 rebels to defeat the bill.

In total, 49 Labour MPs still voted against the bill despite the concessions. No MPs from other parties voted alongside the government, although three MPs elected for Labour who have since had the whip removed did so.

Which Labour MPs rebelled?

Last week, 127 Labour MPs signed what they called a “reasoned amendment”, a letter stating their objection to the bill as it was.

The government responded with some concessions to try and win back the rebels, which was enough to convince some of them. But they were still ultimately forced to make more changes today.

In total, 68 MPs who signed the initial “reasoned amendment” eventually voted in favour of the bill.

Nine in 10 MPs elected for the first time at the 2024 general election voted with the government.

That compares with fewer than three quarters of MPs who were voted in before that.

A total of 42 Labour MPs also voted in favour of an amendment that would have stopped the bill from even going to a vote at all. That was voted down by 328 votes to 149.

How does the rebellion compare historically?

If the wording of the bill had remained unchanged and 127 MPs or more had voted against it on Tuesday, it would have been up there as one of the biggest rebellions in British parliamentary history.

As it happened, it was still higher than the largest recorded during Tony Blair’s first year as PM, when 47 of his Labour colleagues (including Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, who also voted against the bill on Tuesday) voted no to his plan to cut benefits for single-parent families.

Follow more updates live on the Sky News Politics Hub.


The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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Ryland Headley: Man, 92, who raped and murdered Louisa Dunne in Bristol nearly 60 years ago, jailed for life

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Ryland Headley: Man, 92, who raped and murdered Louisa Dunne in Bristol nearly 60 years ago, jailed for life

A 92-year-old man has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years in prison for the rape and murder of an elderly widow nearly 60 years ago.

Ryland Headley was found guilty on Monday of killing 75-year-old Louisa Dunne at her Bristol home in June 1967, in what is thought to be the UK’s longest cold case to reach trial, and has been told by the judge he “will die in prison”.

The mother-of-two’s body was found by neighbours after Headley, then a 34-year-old railway worker, forced his way inside the terraced house in the Easton area before attacking her.

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The UK’s longest cold case to reach trial

Police found traces of semen and a palm print on one of the rear windows inside the house – but it was about 20 years before DNA testing.

The case remained unsolved for more than 50 years until Avon and Somerset detectives sent off items from the original investigation and found a DNA match to Headley.

He had moved to Suffolk after the murder and served a prison sentence for raping two elderly women in 1977.

Prosecutors said the convictions showed he had a “tendency” to break into people’s homes at night and, in some cases, “target an elderly woman living alone, to have sex with her despite her attempts to fend him off, and to threaten violence”.

Louisa Parker (later Dunne) in 1933. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary
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Louisa Dunne in 1933. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary

Headley during his arrest. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary
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Headley during his arrest. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary

Headley, from Ipswich, who did not give evidence, denied raping and murdering Ms Dunne, but was found guilty of both charges after a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Detectives said forces across the country are investigating whether Headley could be linked to other unsolved crimes.

Mrs Dunne’s granddaughter, Mary Dainton, who was 20 when her relative was killed, told the court that her murder “had a big impact on my mother, my aunt and her family.

“I don’t think my mother ever recovered from it. The anxiety caused by her mother’s brutal rape and murder clouded the rest of her life.

“The fact the offender wasn’t caught caused my mother to become and remain very ill.

“When people found out about the murder, they withdrew from us. In my experience, there is a stigma attached to rape and murder.”

The front of Louisa Dunne's home. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary
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The front of Louisa Dunne’s home. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary

Louisa Dunne's skirt. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary
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Louisa Dunne’s skirt. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary

Finding out her grandmother’s killer had been caught after almost six decades “turned my life upside down,” she said.

“I feel sad and very tired, which has affected the relationships I have with those close to me. I didn’t expect to deal with something of such emotional significance at this stage of my life.

“It saddens me deeply that all the people who knew and loved Louisa are not here to see that justice has been done.”

Palmprint images. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary
Image:
Palmprint images. Pic: Avon and Somerset Constabulary

After her statement, Mr Justice Sweeting told Mrs Dainton: “It is not easy to talk about matters like this in public.

“Thank you very much for doing it in such a clear and dignified way.”

The judge told Headley his crimes showed “a complete disregard for human life and dignity.

“Mrs Dunne was vulnerable, she was a small elderly woman living alone. You treated her as a means to an end.

“The violation of her home, her body and ultimately her life was a pitiless and cruel act by a depraved man.

“She must have experienced considerable pain and fear before her death,” he said.

Sentencing Headley to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years, the judge told him: “You will never be released, you will die in prison.”

Detective Inspector Dave Marchant of Avon and Somerset Police said Headley was “finally facing justice for the horrific crimes he committed against Louisa in 1967.

“The impact of this crime has cast a long shadow over the city and in particular Louisa’s family, who have had to deal with the sadness and trauma ever since.”

The officer praised Ms Dainton’s “resilience and courage” during what he called a “unique” case and thanked investigators from his own force, as well as South West Forensics, detectives from Suffolk Constabulary, the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

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Charlotte Ream, of the CPS, described Headley’s crimes as “appalling”.

She said Louisa Dunne “died in a horrifying attack carried out in the place where she should have felt safest – her own home.

“Mrs Dunne’s death continues to have a traumatic impact on her family members: the passage of time has not lessened their pain.

“For 58 years, this appalling crime went unsolved and Ryland Headley, the man we now know is responsible, avoided justice.”

Jeremy Benson KC, defending Headley, offered no personal mitigation on behalf of the defendant.

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Three members of Lucy Letby hospital’s senior leadership team arrested

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Three members of Lucy Letby hospital's senior leadership team arrested

Three managers at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

They were in senior roles at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016 and have been bailed pending further enquiries, Cheshire Constabulary said. Their names have not been made public.

Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the hospital’s neonatal unit.

Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes explained that gross negligent manslaughter focuses on the “action or inaction of individuals”.

There is also an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital, which began in October 2023.

That focuses on “senior leadership and their decision-making”, Mr Hughes said. The intention there is to determine whether any “criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities”.

The scope was widened to include gross negligence manslaughter in March of this year.

lucy letby
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Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more

Mr Hughes said it is “important to note” that this latest development “does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder”.

He added: “Both the corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigation are continuing and there are no set timescales for these.

“Our investigation into the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.”

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A public inquiry has also been examining the hospital’s response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest.

In May, it was announced the inquiry’s final report into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes will now be published early next year.

Earlier this year, lawyers for Lucy Letby called for the suspension of the inquiry, claiming there was “overwhelming and compelling evidence” that her convictions were unsafe.

In February, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists told reporters that poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.

Their evidence has been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

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