A celebratory atmosphere reigned over the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM)’s drinks reception in Liverpool on Monday night as speakers paid tribute to their work helping secure Labour’s general election victory.

Addressing a crowd of over 100 people in an upstairs room of a local pub, Baroness Anderson articulated her gratitude to JLM activists: “you have done extraordinary things. You did it for the Jewish community, but you did it for the country. We have a Labour government because of you”.

Baroness Ruth Anderson

Sarah Sackman, the Solicitor General and newly elected MP for Finchley and Golders Green – the parliamentary constituency with the largest number of Jewish voters in the country – spoke of her pride in representing the area she grew up in.

The frontbencher told the audience that she found swearing into parliament on a Hebrew Bible, an experience she said was “as nerve wracking as my Bat Mitzvah and my wedding put together”, incredibly moving and important: “Jewish freedom and the freedom to be our full Jewish selves, to practice our religion and our culture … is something we should never take for granted. And for me, being able to swear on the Hebrew Bible was deeply symbolic, deeply personally heartfelt and emotional.”

She also spoke warmly of Dame Louise Ellman, the former Liverpool MP who she happened to spot in the crowd: “you won't remember, but my first ever visit to parliament was to come and meet you. And I cannot think of a worthier mentor and example and stalwart of our movement”, the Solicitor General said.

Sackman continued, “I want to pay tribute to you, Louise, and the generation of women MPs, not just of Jewish women MPs, but of women MPs who broke through the glass ceiling for people like myself to follow.”

JLM members also heard from Israeli opposition party leader Yair Golan, who said he was in the UK to “learn how to win”.

Yair Golan, leader of Israeli opposition party The Democrats.

The Democrats party leader told the gathering: “we have a common mission, you, Jews all over the globe and the people of Israel: to create the best possible country in the Middle East. We did it before, and therefore we can do it again”, and thanked the activists for their “ongoing support to Israel”, not the current Israeli government.

Miriam Mirwitch, JLM’s national secretary recognised the challenges that members had to overcome under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party:“we fought for a rightful place in this movement, and we won, and now we have the right to change our country for the better. The battles that we fought were horrendous, and none of us should have had to go through those experiences, but I'm proud of the fight that we fought, because it got us here.”

Israeli opposition party leader Yair Golan (centre) with Jewish Labour movement national chair Mike Katz (left) and national secretary Miriam Mirwitch (right). Credit: JLM, X/Twitter

Mike Katz, JLM’s national chair echoed her point and that it was important there was “no going back to when it was it safe for people to be racist in the Labour Party and be politically protected. No going back to the days when actual factional infighting or grandstanding or making political points was more important than winning power and governing for the good of the country and the good of the Jewish community”.