For Britain’s Jews, the critical moment of Labour conference came halfway through Sir Keir Starmer’s hour-long speech on Tuesday. It wasn’t that he stated once again how important it was to “rip out antisemitism by the roots”; he had repeated this pledge many times since becoming leader in 2020, and has made some headway.
Much more significant was the reaction in the hall. The thousands present rose in a spontaneous standing ovation, led by his Jewish wife, Victoria, with just a diehard handful sitting on their hands. The cancer of antisemitism in Labour has become symbolic of its unreadiness to govern. Was this the moment the party won the next election?
At the 2019 conference, Jeremy Corbyn’s last as party leader, the venue had been illuminated with projections of the Palestinian flag, together with a series of slogans supplied by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. There were Palestinian flags inside the hall until as recently as last year, when delegates passed a motion calling for sanctions against Israel.
But in Liverpool in 2022, the foreign affairs debate — with both Sir Keir and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy present — took place beneath a giant projection of the Ukrainian flag as that country’s anthem played.
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Keir Starmer received a dramatic standing ovation, led by his Jewish wife, when he pledged to ‘rip out’ antisemitism (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
The contrast in priorities was obvious. During his leader’s speech, Sir Keir’s “Slavka Ukraini” war cry triggered another standing ovation. On the face of it, this was a party that had atoned. And one that was seriously preparing for power.
The diary clash between the conference and Rosh Hashanah meant that the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) reception did not start until 9.30pm on Tuesday evening.
When it did, the room was packed to the rafters with almost 400 people who heard Sir Keir, Mr Lammy and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves deliver unflinching messages of support for the Jewish state.
Thanking LFI for “giving me the space” to show he was serious about combating both antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Sir Keir said this was crucial in rehabilitating Labour as a grown-up party.
“When we go into government — and we will — you’ll be inscribed on the foundation stone as part of this story, part of this journey,” he said.
But there must be caveats. Sir Keir served for five years in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and campaigned for him to become prime minister. Had he and his colleagues been successful in 2019, the current leader would have been a minister in a Corbyn government. Then what?
When Jewish MPs such as Louise Ellman — now returned to the Labour fold — and Luciana Berger were being driven from the party by antisemites, Sir Keir took little action. Some onlookers still feel sceptical.
Lord Ian Austin, who stood down as a Labour MP in 2019 out of disgust with antisemitism, said:
“It is good that Keir makes these comments and attends the LFI fringe now, but it remains a shame that he did not do so during the Corbyn years when it would have been much more important. It is far too soon to claim Labour has rooted out antisemitism.
“The Corbyn years have left large parts of the membership obsessed with and hostile to Israel, singling it out for criticism and holding it to standards they would never apply to other countries, showing there is much more work to do.”
The fact that Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, an elected member of the National Executive Committee (NEC), has been suspended for speaking at a meeting staged by a banned organisation underlined this point.
Sir Keir appeared to acknowledge this. “I’m not complacent,” he told the LFI audience, which included several Israeli diplomats.
“We will never, ever end this work. We have made progress, but there is more to do. We will continue to root it out wherever its ugly face shows.”
Elsewhere in Liverpool, Labour’s hard left was staging its own events. Here, the atmosphere was very different indeed. Hours before the vibrant LFI reception, a radical rally called “The World Transformed” had taken place, albeit miles from the location of the main conference.
Addressed by Mr Corbyn’s former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and other socialist luminaries, it featured terms such as “class war” and promises to “fight back” against the Starmerite tyranny.
There were hundreds present and the air soon grew oppressively stuffy, yet the audience was noticeably smaller than that drawn by Labour Friends of Israel later that evening.
Similarly, a small fringe meeting organised by pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour was held a long way away from the conference centre, in a dingy club.
With just 100 in attendance, most of the speeches focused on the grave “injustices” endured by the more than 50 activists who have been suspended by the leadership.
These included its leader, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. Earlier this month, she was elected to the party’s National Executive Committee, thanks to backing from a combined slate of a dozen hard-left groups.
But she was barred from taking up her post because she was under investigation for breaching party rules.
JVL’s complaints were couched in lurid rhetoric, such Ms Wimborne-Idrissi’s claim that the “only thing that Keir Starmer seems to support unequivocally is Zionism”.
This could be seen as evidence that Sir Keir and his colleagues mean what they say: when it comes to taking action against factions accused of minimising antisemitism, they are prepared to be ruthless. JVL may itself have understood that point. “We’re the right sort of Jews in the wrong sort of party,” lamented its secretary, Glyn Secker.
The determination to win back the right sort of Jewish support extended beyond Sir Keir. Mr Lammy – who, the JC revealed, visited Israel in July – reminded his audience of Labour’s commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East. So far, so unremarkable. But then he spoke powerfully of the solidarity between the British Labour party and its Israeli counterpart.
“The country of Israel was founded by Ben Gurion and by the Labour Party,” he said. “It was birthed by Labour. And it was birthed against a backdrop of hope.”
Under Mr Corbyn, LFI and its supporters had been reviled. Many left the party, never to return. Among those at the reception was the writer and JC contributor Rebecca Abrams.
“I suddenly get a feeling that in today’s Labour Party, Jews are seen as cool,” she remarked.
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Labour Party leader Keir Starmer with his wife Victoria leave the stage after holding his key note speech (Photo by Stefan Rousseau - Pool/Getty Images)
Immediately after Sir Keir’s conference speech, the mood was buoyant. Unsurprisingly, given the growing sense that the next election is Labour’s to lose, no one was prepared to be critical.
But significantly for Jews, again and again delegates emphasised that one of the speech’s most important segments was Sir Keir’s remarks on antisemitism.
“We had to rip out antisemitism by its roots”
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) September 27, 2022
Keir Starmer received a standing ovation during his speech at Labour Party conference. pic.twitter.com/Ryodq0NxIB
“That was Britain’s next PM. He’s transformed Labour from a party of protest to a party of government,” said Steve Cox, a councillor in Rickmansworth and a Labour member for 40 years.
“Rooting out antisemitism is a big part of that, and he is absolutely right to do it. It was a stain on the party.”
