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Starmer’s tackling of Labour antisemitism was key for our community

It took time for trust to be restored but the party took the required action

July 5, 2024 10:30
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Keir and Victoria Starmer arrive at a polling station to place their votes (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
3 min read

When the exit poll dropped last night, we saw what most of us had been expecting all along; a landslide victory for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. However, we were also reminded of how far the party has come since 2019.

Hidden behind the numbers was the shock prediction that the Liberal Democrats would be 99% likely to win Finchley and Golders Green, the seat with the largest proportion of Jewish voters anywhere in the UK. This prediction was shown to be completely wide of the mark – the seat went to Labour’s Sarah Sackman – but there is a clear reason the model got this so wrong. In 2019, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Finchley and Golders Green was Luciana Berger, the former Labour MP who quit the party over the antisemitism scandal presided over by Jeremy Corbyn. Berger came second as Jewish Labour voters rejected their party. In 2024, this constituency and other areas with Jewish populations are no longer such extreme outliers.

A Labour victory in 2019 would have caused existential questions for the British Jewish community. When Starmer became leader, the key item on the agenda for communal organisations meeting him and other party figures was the antisemitism crisis. It took time for trust to be restored but the party took the required action to once again allow us to work with them as a realistic government-in-waiting. As a result, we have the necessary relationships with key Labour figures to engage with this government from day one.

This is vital. Labour come to power at a time of growing antisemitism as the events of the Middle East lead directly to hatred on the streets of the UK. The Israel-Hamas war continues and violence on Israel’s northern border threatens to expand the conflict further. One British citizen is still held hostage in Gaza and the outgoing government is challenging the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the conflict. There are other imminent issues to be raised with incoming ministers such as serious concerns regarding the impact of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act which will come into force within weeks.