SHADOW CHANCELLOR Anneliese Dodds said today that disciplinary action is likely to be taken after an “independent review” is carried out into the recently leaked internal Labour Party report.

In an interview with Sky News, she said that it was “absolutely right” for Labour leader Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner to promise an investigation in response to the release of the file.

Ms Dodds vowed that this would make sure the “deeply, deeply unpleasant” bullying and spiteful behaviour described in the report “never ever happens again.”

She stressed that there is a need for any investigation to be independent, so that it is “trusted across the board.”

The 851-page report states that Labour HQ staff “aligned to the right” of the party actively undermined Jeremy Corbyn since he was elected party leader in 2015.

It says that this likely cost him the 2,227 votes needed to form a government in 2017.

It also offers accounts of the mishandling of disciplinary cases including those related to anti-semitism and Islamophobia.

The report, leaked at the weekend, details how senior members of the party’s management made abusive, derogatory, misogynistic, bullying, racist and Islamophobic remarks, mainly about Mr Corbyn, and left-wing MPs, staff and members.

The report was based on thousands of emails and WhatsApp messages obtained from whistleblowers.

Kensal Green councillor Jumbo Chan said that a minority of senior HQ staff had engaged in “odious” behaviour by having “hounded and smeared to destroy the chances of obtaining a socialist Labour government.” On behalf of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors, which published a list of demands today, he said that the “firmest action” must be taken.

The group is demanding an emergency meeting of Labour’s national executive committee to discuss the report, suspend members and employees who had been involved in racist, misogynistic and bullying behaviour, and that the person who leaked the report should be protected as a whistleblower.

Titled The Work of the Labour Party’s Governance & Legal Unit in Relation to Anti-Semitism, 2014 – 2019, the report was produced in response to the investigation by the Equality & Human Rights Commission into the party’s handling of anti-semitism complaints.

The report states that in 2019, half of all complaints of anti-semitism were made by one man.

In response to the report, campaign group Labour Against the Witchhunt called for disciplinary action taken over the past five years over allegations of anti-semitism to undergo an “unbiased re-examination.”