Today Labour took a huge step towards rebuilding trust with the Jewish community.

Ever since he was elected Labour leader, Keir Starmer has been clear that one of his top priorities has been to root out the antisemitism that had so stained the party under Jeremy Corbyn.

The past five years have been a waking nightmare for the Jewish Labour Movement, our members and Jewish Labour activists across the party.
 
Thanks to Starmer, who has been unbending his commitment to root out antisemtism from Labour, this bad dream is coming to an end.
 
Every conference since 2016, I’ve gone up to the rostrum warn the party that it needed to tackle anti-Jewish racism. JLM put it on notice that trust between it and the Jewish community had broken down because Labour refused to take the issue seriously and refused to expel racists because they were political allies.
 
So we were forced to call in the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
 
And their conclusion was stark: Labour had broken equalities law. It was not a safe place for Jewish members or for those in the party that spoke out against antisemitism.

This was total vindication for JLM and all Jewish Labour members. The EHRC said we were right when they called out racism and - as Starmer made clear when he responded on the day of publication - those who chose to deny it and downplay it are as guilty as the original perpetrators.

The difference for JLM between Starmer and the previous regime has been night and day. We’re not ignored or blamed for weaponisnig racism. Instead, we’ve worked with the new General Secretary, David Evans, and his team to design and deliver new training for MPs, the National Executive Committee and thousands of members. 

And he’s involved the Jewish community too, setting up an Antisemitism Advisory Board on which the Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and CST are all represented. 

The EHRC was clear that Labour needed an independent complaints system, which is what today’s rule system delivers. We’ll keep a close eye on how it is introduced and, importantly, make sure it works for all minority groups who face harassment and discrimination.

And it was equally clear that failure to pass this rule change would quickly lead to them taking enforcement action. 

So creating an independent system was a not just a moral and political imperative, but a legal one, too.

This isn’t a magic wand. There’s still so much more work to do to detoxify party culture. The scenes both inside and outside the conference hall today make that clear that there are still some in the Party who think that EHRC was wrong and antisemitism was just fabricated to undermine Corbyn.

We won’t rest until these antisemites are driven out of the Party. The difference with this Conference is that now the leader has our backs and shares our ambition. 

And that’s why Jews can take another look at the Labour Party, starting with next year’s local elections. 

All we want is to return to the situation when Jewish voters can decide their vote on who has the better policies - so we can fight for your support like other parties. Never again must people feel forced to vote for a PM they neither like nor trust, simply because the alternative offered by the opposition feels like a signal threat to the community’s safety. 

With Keir Starmer, slowly but surely Labour is regaining the community’s trust. JLM’s job is to make sure that things only get better. 

Mike Katz is National Chair of JLM