THE Labour Party’s publication of a previously secret code of conduct for judging claims of anti-semitism is an apparent attempt to pre-empt an imminent court hearing, accused members have said.

The party is being taken to the High Court by six of its members from Labour Activists for Justice (LA4J), with two others supported by the Left Legal Fighting Fund.

They are demanding that Labour make its disciplinary process fair and just for all members.

An aspect of their claim concerns the party’s use of an unpublished code of conduct to judge anti-semitism cases.

Accused members could not access the code and therefore use it in their defence. Labour repeatedly refused to publish it.

Last week, Labour released the code, which was revealed to be the same as the one under former party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Both the code and Mr Corbyn were accused of being anti-semitic when it was issued in 2018, and members assumed it was withdrawn once the party adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition.

But the code has been used to decide which anti-semitism complaints to pursue, and to judge those complaints, since September 2018. 

Campaigners said they were not aware of any accusations of anti-semitism against the party itself following the publication of the code last week under Sir Keir Starmer, despite the heavily critical response when Mr Corbyn was leader.  

LA4J’s Diana Neslen, an 81-year-old orthodox Jew accused of anti-semitism by the party, said: “Even a quick look at it suggests that all of us have been wrongfully accused, indeed we should never have been investigated in the first place. 

“But there are still all the other issues that we are challenging, and this just highlights the gross injustice of the whole process.”