Exclusive: Spending on case against five former staffers is rising, causing concern among some in party
Labour has spent more than half a million pounds as part of its lawsuit against five former staffers accused of leaking an internal report on antisemitism, the Guardian understands.
The party has spent at least 503,260 in its bitter battle with ex-staff members, including Jeremy Corbyn’s former chief of staff, Karie Murphy, and his former director of communications, Seumas Milne.
That sum is said to relate only to the total costs accrued for a recent hearing, that involved a failed attempt to gain access to Murphy’s private emails. The party has been refused permission to appeal.
In total, the Labour party could face a legal bill of between 3m and 4m.
In a high court order handed down this month, Mr Justice Chamberlain ordered the party to pay 90,000 as an interim contribution towards Murphy’s costs. Murphy, Milne and the three others – Georgie Robertson, Laura Murray and Harry Hayball – deny leaking the report by Labour’s governance and legal unit in April 2020.
The report, titled The work of the Labour party’s governance and Legal Unit in Relation to Antisemitism, 2014–2019, was compiled in connection with an investigation by the equalities watchdog into allegations of antisemitism inside Labour. It leaked days after Keir Starmer became party leader.
It included details of staffers’ private conversations expressing hostility towards Corbyn or his close allies and...
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