Labour has apologised to a group of antisemitism whistleblowers, after accepting press statements made against them last year were "defamatory and false".
The party has said it will pay "substantial damages", which in addition to court costs is likely to total well over half a million pounds.
The decision to reach settlement marks a significant moment in Sir Keir Starmer's efforts to move the party on from the scandals that came to define the Jeremy Corbyn era.
The seven former party employees were interviewed in a BBC Panorama investigation that was highly critical of the party's handling of antisemitism complaints.
The court settlement focused on press statements issued in relation to the broadcast, which went on to be widely reported across the news media.
Mark Henderson, representing Labour, told the High Court: "The Labour Party acknowledges that these claims about the claimants are untrue, and we retract and withdraw them and undertake not to repeat them.
"The Labour Party is here today to publicly set the record straight and to apologise to the claimants for the distress and embarrassment that it has caused them."
The party said in a separate statement: "We acknowledge the many years of dedicated and committed service that the whistleblowers have given to the Labour Party as members and as staff.
"We appreciate their valuable contribution at all levels of the party.
"We unreservedly withdraw all allegations of bad faith, malice and lying. We would like to apologise unreservedly for the distress, embarrassment and hurt caused by their publication."
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The whistleblowers who brought the case were Katherine Buckingham, Michael Creighton, Samuel Matthews, Daniel Hogan, Louise Withers Green, Martha Robinson and Benjamin Westerman.
They had worked in the party's legal and governance unit and gave interviews to Panorama in which they raised concerns over the Labour leadership's approach to dealing with the antisemitism crisis under Mr Corbyn.
The party has also apologised and agreed to pay damages to the journalist who presented the Panorama investigation, John Ware, for falsely accusing him of "deliberate and malicious misrepresentations designed to mislead the public".
The whistleblowers' barrister, William Bennett QC, said Labour had alleged that Mr Ware "invented quotes, flouted journalistic ethics and ... knowingly promoted falsehoods" in pursuit of "a pre-determined outcome to the question asked by the Panorama programme".
He added that the party had agreed to pay "substantial damages" to Mr Ware.
Labour said in a statement: "Before the broadcast of the programme the Labour Party issued a press release that contained defamatory and false allegations about John Ware.
"We would like to take this opportunity to withdraw these allegations. We would like to apologise unreservedly for the distress, embarrassment and hurt caused by their publication.
"As we acknowledge in the statement in open court, John Ware is a very experienced broadcast and print journalist, producer and author, and we have agreed to pay damages to him."
In a statement, the claimants' solicitor Mark Lewis said: "Today in the High Court, the Labour Party retracted its false allegations made about the Panorama programme asking whether Labour was antisemitic.
"The answer was a clear 'yes'. Labour chose to double down and attack the programme's presenter, John Ware, and the whistleblowers rather than addressing the truth of the problem.
"It is ironic that the workers' party chose to act as disgruntled bosses who had been caught out."
The BBC said in a statement: "We welcome today's long overdue apology to John Ware and the seven Panorama whistleblowers, who have been subjected to painful and damaging personal attacks on their integrity and character.
"We applaud their strength to take this case forward and are pleased it has been recognised in court that these extremely serious and damaging allegations against them were false and have been unreservedly withdrawn."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMigwFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9sYWJvdXItdG8tcGF5LXN1YnN0YW50aWFsLWRhbWFnZXMtdG8tc2V2ZW4td2hpc3RsZWJsb3dlcnMtb3Zlci1kZWZhbWF0b3J5LWFuZC1mYWxzZS1hbGxlZ2F0aW9ucy0xMjAzMzc3NtIBhwFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvbGFib3VyLXRvLXBheS1zdWJzdGFudGlhbC1kYW1hZ2VzLXRvLXNldmVuLXdoaXN0bGVibG93ZXJzLW92ZXItZGVmYW1hdG9yeS1hbmQtZmFsc2UtYWxsZWdhdGlvbnMtMTIwMzM3NzY?oc=5
2020-07-22 10:07:30Z
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