Labour drops abusive conduct probe into Ian Austin

The Dudley North MP was told he would be the subject of a party probe in July after he expressed anger over Labour's code of conduct on anti-Semitism.

He took on a lawyer to help fight his case, but has now received a letter from General Secretary Jennie Formby telling him that the party has closed its investigation and that no further action will be taken.

Mr Austin said: “I make no apologies for being upset about anti-Semitism – I think every Labour Party member ought to be angry about racism and the failure to deal with it properly, but I did not scream abuse as was alleged, so I am pleased the Labour Party have dropped its threat to hold an investigation.

"Frankly, they should never have threatened this in the first place. The way this whole issue has been handled is unacceptable and the time it has taken is appalling.

“One of the reasons I joined the Labour Party as a teenager in Dudley 35 years ago was to fight racism.

"I believe that just as passionately now as I did then and I will not be deterred from speaking out about anti-Semitism and racism in the Labour Party.

“The Labour Party’s priority ought to be dealing with the outstanding cases of anti-Semitism and doing everything it can to win back the trust of the Jewish community, not investigating people like me for complaining about their failure to tackle anti-Semitism properly.

“It is a good job they finally adopted the standard internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism and this must not now be reopened, rewritten or watered down.

"They still haven’t responded properly to the reasonable requests made by the Jewish Leadership Council, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Labour Movement back in the spring.

"Most of all, they need to boot people responsible for racism out of the Labour Party.

“I want to thank my constituents and members of the Jewish community for their support and encouragement."

The probe against Mr Austin, whose adoptive parents were Czech Jewish refugees, followed a heated exchange with party chair Ian Lavery in the House of Commons on July 18.

Mr Austin was furious that the party’s code of conduct at the time recognised the internationally accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, but failed to replicate in full its list of examples.

Labour adopted the full list in September, but sparked controversy by including a statement saying it should not undermine free speech on Israel.