From fighting Corbyn-era antisemitism to Labour peer: Lord Katz speaks

The chair of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) is a regular visitor to Parliament, but on Monday “there was something tangibly different”.

It hit him: “This is where I'm going to actually be working soon and spending my time”.

Led into the grand setting and iconic red benches of the House of Lords by fellow Jewish Labour peer Baroness Anderson – clothed in a “real Oxfordshire fur” robe – Mike Katz formally became Lord Katz of Fortune Green.

In his first interview since his ennoblement, Katz sat down with the JC, joking: “The other thing I still need to get my head around, is it is one of the few places where you can be over 50 and still be considered a youngster”.

While it may be fashionable in some quarters to lament our unique parliamentary customs, Katz has the opposite view: “we are better than everybody else in the world at putting this sort of ceremony on. I love it, it makes our country and our politics that little bit more special.”

The 52-year-old even light-heartedly suggested that his Jewish upbringing meant the ceremonial aspect was less overwhelming: “If you’re used to going to shul, wearing a big tallit, standing up, sitting down and bowing every so often, then actually, I found it less phasing.”

In a heartwarming touch, he swore his oath of allegiance to King Charles on a Siddur given to his mother by his grandfather.

Lord Katz gave his first interview since his ennoblement to the JC (Image: Parliament TV)[Missing Credit]

As well as the jokes, there is a uniquely British, Jewish story: “My dad's dad came over from Bialystok – then in Russia, now in Poland – we don't know if his name is Katz or something a bit different” before he settled in London’s East End with very little English.

“That somebody – two generations later – can become a legislator, can become a member of the House of Lords, is, for me, on a personal level, amazing. It’s still quite astounding,” he added.

Revealing some of the behind-the-scenes details of the grand ceremony, he said that he wasn’t even tailored for his robe, instead he was simply asked “how tall are you?” and whether he wanted “real Oxfordshire fur” or a synthetic alternative.

“I can exclusively tell the JC I went for real fur,” he chuckled. Though even that decision had the weight of his heritage behind it: “my mum's dad was a furrier back in the day”.

Although he’d be entitled to make the occasion entirely about him, Katz isn’t keen to do so: “It speaks to where we are as a community, but also where we are as a country: when that can happen. That the barriers that we previously encountered as a community and that the establishment put up – they still exist, make no bones about it – but they are much easier to surmount than previously was that case”.

In Katz’s case, the experiences of barriers and discrimination are only too real.

In 2019, at the height of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, JLM took the Labour Party to Britain’s equalities watchdog – the Equality and Human Rights Council (EHRC) – who later found it responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.

But the election of Sir Keir Starmer as leader “flicked a switch”.

“We went from being in the dark, completely shunned, to being absolutely at the centre of what he wanted to do in terms of the political messaging that the Labour Party was changing under his leadership”, Katz recalled.

What stands out to him most was Starmer’s decision to make a personal apology to the Jewish community almost immediately when first elected in April 2020, while the country was enduring the height of the Covid pandemic.

The former Camden councillor claimed that the now-PM has continued this drive all the way from opposition to Downing Street.

Along the route to No10, Starmer sacked a former leadership rival for sharing an article that contained “an antisemitic conspiracy theory” and controversial comments about Israel and barred Corbyn from standing for re-election as a Labour MP for refusing to retract comments that antisemitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons.”

“Whatever you think of day-to-day decisions or individual events, you cannot, in good faith, say that he has wavered from that line and that commitment”, Katz added.

As we talk in Portcullis House on the parliamentary estate, there is visible enthusiasm from some Labour colleagues who spot the latest addition to their ranks.

As well as a few waves, nods and winks, one Labour MP accidentally interrupted the interview to offer an enthusiastic handshake and a welcome to him.

But he isn’t in Parliament solely to talk about Jewish issues.

“As somebody spent their professional life working around transport policy, trains and infrastructure growth, I'm not just going to be there to talk about antisemitism, the Jewish community and foreign policy – although all those things are really important”, said Katz, who spent over a decade working for transport giant FirstGroup.

Despite being in Parliament for under a day, he’s already busy trying to sell the government’s policy programme to JC readers, enthusiastially talking about “actually getting the country going and building things and investing in infrastructure”, adding that building new homes is something he thinks will be close to “many readers hearts: making sure we build enough houses so that their children, their grandchildren, have decent homes to live and that they can afford”.

Asked if he had ambitions for a frontbench position, he replied that it was “too early to talk about that” but added he was “here to be a working peer” and not a part-timer.

Will he continued to serve as JLM chair while in the House of Lords? He says it is something he will keep under review.

But Katz is keen to end our interview on a more optimistic note in light of the challenges facing Britain’s Jewish community: “The thing that I've been struck by when engaging with both officials in the House of Lords and also other members, is that there's a real, clear understanding of the distress and concerns that the Jewish community as a whole feels it is under because of the atmosphere connected to antisemitism, particularly since October 7.”

He wants to emphasise that we are not on our own: “That doesn’t mean that everything is fine and dandy and everything is taken care of, but our concerns are heard and understood, and people understand that threat is real.”