Louise Ellman is confident of returning to Parliament next month — and little wonder: she is standing in a constituency she has won five times before and is defending a majority of 24,463.
Liverpool Riverside may be Labour’s ninth safest seat in Britain, but for a time last year, at the height of the party’s antisemitism crisis, it was an uncomfortable place for the veteran Jewish politician.
The JC revealed in April 2016 that Mrs Ellman had been targeted by hard-left activists at meetings of her constituency party. Members of the pro-Jeremy Corbyn Momentum group were said to have compared Hamas tunnels being dug from Gaza into Israel to those created by Jews attempting to escape the Warsaw ghetto and Nazi persecution.
Mrs Ellman, a Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair, was present at the meeting and was faced with further comments claiming Daesh terrorists were backed by Israel.
A leaked document later revealed the attacks were part of the activists’ determined efforts to have her deselected.
The campaign left her “disturbed”, but a year later and after a restructuring of the local Labour branch, Mrs Ellman displays renewed energy and positivity.
“I’ve got lots of people campaigning for me and there has been a lot of enthusiasm. Support for the party is entrenched in Liverpool Riverside and there is very strong hostility to the Tories,” the former county council leader says.
After two decades in Parliament, her personal recognition remains strong among voters in the constituency.
While out campaigning, “people talk to me about things they know I have been involved in and cases I have dealt with for them in the past,” Mrs Ellman explains. She has encountered “very little hostility” on the doorsteps of Toxteth and Chinatown.
But how does she square her own opposition to Mr Corbyn — she has been a leading critic of his handling of the antisemitism problems faced by the party — with campaigning, ultimately, for him to be prime minister?
“I’m campaigning for the Labour Party which I am deeply committed to. I will continue to oppose things in the party to which I am against. I am clear I want a Labour government and it is my name on the ballot.”
In the Commons, the Manchester-born 71-year-old has been one of the most dependable voices for the community, defending Jewish religious practices including circumcision and shechita.
Speaking to the JC on Monday, she breaks away from a leafletting session at which she is joined by members of the Jewish Labour Movement who have been sent from London to support her campaign. Mrs Ellman is the group’s president.
“I’ve had a lot of support from members and from across the party.”
Giving up politics after the tribulations of last year “never crossed my mind”.
“I felt determined to fight and that’s what I will continue to do.”
