Politics
European Union 'tried to block kosher products', former Northern Ireland minister claims
Brandon Lewis made the comments while defending Liz Truss on Sky News
August 16, 2022 10:52
Brandon Lewis made the comments while defending Liz Truss on Sky News
August 16, 2022 10:52An Ex-Northern Ireland secretary has claimed that the EU tried to block Jewish access to Kosher food in the country.
Speaking on Sky News, Brandon Lewis, the MP for Great Yarmouth told Sky Presenter Niall Paterson on Monday: "Where I saw anything against the Jewish community it was coming from the EU who were trying to block the Jewish community of Northern Ireland from getting access to kosher products."
Niall Paterson: Liz Truss made allegations about there being widespread anti-semitism within the civil service.. where's the evidence?
Brandon Lewis: Anything against the Jewish community was coming from the EU, who were blocking them getting kosher products b/c of the protocol pic.twitter.com/99CY0wxmeB
Mr Lewis was responding to questions about Liz Truss' allegations of 'wokeism' in the civil service that 'strays into antisemitism' which generated controversy last week with civil service union leaders and Labour MPs attacking her comments.
In response to questions from Patterson about the evidence for these claims, Lewis referenced "challenges in the Foreign Office" before talking about the EU in relation to Belfast's Jewish community.
Last year, it was revealed that Northern Ireland's last surviving community, Belfast Jewish Community Synagogue was threatened by Kosher meat shortages due to post-Brexit paperwork.
Synagogue Chairman Michael Black told the JC that they could potentially lose their minister, Reverend David Kale, if kosher shortages continued and that the option of importing meat from Dublin was cost-prohibitive.