CLAIMS submitted to a probe into alleged anti-semitism within the Labour Party are based on “prejudiced gossip, distortion, double standards and presumed guilt without investigation,” according to analysis by Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL).

The socialist group said today that evidence sent by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) to the Equality & Human Rights Commission is “largely worthless” as it “misstates facts and draws false conclusions.”

JVL said it had received expert help in analysing more than 150 claims that JLM included in a submission to the commission in December.

The executive summary of the analysis, which has been made available to the public, states that many of the claims are “simply rumour and gossip, or unsubstantiated allegations.”

JVL said that its investigators found “totally inaccurate narratives in many cases, including high-profile, widely publicised ones.”

It referred to the allegations that former Labour MP Luciana Berger received anti-semitic abuse from pro-Corbyn party members.

JVL said that, in Ms Berger’s case, “assumptions are made that those calling out anti-semitism [Ms Berger] are then victimised for so doing.”

The group said that anti-semitism was “assumed” in the case of black activist Marc Wadsworth, who was expelled from the party in 2018 after heckling former Labour MP Ruth Smeeth at the launch of the Chakrabarti report.

Ms Smeeth walked out of the event after Mr Wadsworth pointed out an “exchange” between her and a Telegraph journalist next to her. He was accused of alleging that Ms Smeeth, who he claims he did not know is Jewish, was colluding with right-wing media to discredit Mr Corbyn.

JVL said that the two cases are well-publicised examples where the evidence presented by JLM is “just plain wrong.”  

The group also wrote in its summary that many of the conclusions that JLM chose to draw were based on a “repeated eagerness to interpret failings (or alleged failings) relating to incidents with no obvious connection to anti-semitism, to anti-semitic intent or anti-semitic institutional bias.”

JVL co-chairwoman Jenny Manson said: “We find overwhelmingly that [JLM’s submission] fails to establish its case that Labour ‘is no longer a safe space for Jewish people or for those who stand up against anti-semitism’.”

JVL also pointed to the explosive Labour Party governance and legal unit report leaked in April, saying that its content “further undermines” allegations that Mr Corbyn’s team were lax in efforts to handle allegations of anti-semitism within the party.

The document contained evidence in emails and WhatsApp messages showing that senior members of Labour HQ staff aligned with the right of the party had actively sabotaged the attempts of Mr Corbyn’s team to deal with anti-semitism complaints.

JVL said that the report shows that “procedural failings [were] unjustifiably attributed to anti-semitic bias.”

JVL’s Mike Cushman said: “Time after time, the dossier moves from remarks about a specific Jew or group of Jews to claiming this refers to all Jews.

“An individual Jew may be accused of some sort of undesirable behaviour, just as any individual may be.

“It is only anti-semitic if there is a pattern of selecting individual Jews for this behaviour and overlooking it in the case of non-Jews, or if there is a suggestion that the behaviour is in some way reflective of their Jewishness.”