Row over Board of Deputies’ invitation to Corbynite Angela Rayner to speak at Chanukah reception

The JC has learned that a number of Labour MPs with close links to the community have also questioned why Ms Rayner was deemed a suitable figure to invite to the Board’s prestigious Chanukah event.

One Labour source said: “You would not have put Angela Rayner anywhere near the top of a list of MPs you would have wanted to have invited to what is usually a celebratory event.

“She has offered what can only be described as lukewarm support to her Jewish colleagues in Labour over their fight against rampant antisemitism.

“It said much that when MPs like Ruth (Smeeth) and Luciana (Berger) and Alex (Sobel) spoke out so emotionally about the issue in Parliament, at the end as they were all being given a standing ovation, Angela, along with the rest of Mr Corbyn’s front bench, remained sat on her backside.”

Ms Rayner was criticised in September after she tweeted about Labour’s growing membership with the words “we’re going to need a bigger smear”, an apparent reference to accusations of antisemitism within the party amid its standoff with the Jewish community over the summer.

She subsequently deleted the tweet, but not before saying: “It was smears against Labour Party in general, no mention of antisemitism smears? Our membership continues to grow despite hostility from sections of the MSM.”

Earlier this summer, Mr Corbyn was facing intense criticism of his party’s attempt to redefine the internationally accepted definition of antisemitism.

At the same time, revelations emerged about his trip to Tunisia during which he laid a wreath at a ceremony to honour terrorists behind the Munich Olympic massacre. In that period, Ms Rayner leant her support to the #WeareCorbyn Twitter campaign launched by his supporters.

Ms Rayner is not thought to have been in the group of Labour MPs who attended the Enough Is Enough protest in Parliament Square in March.

Board President Marie van der Zyl defended the decision to invite Ms Rayner in an article in the JC, saying: “Some in the community seem to have adopted the ‘grand strategy’ of calling Jeremy Corbyn names in the Jewish media, refusing to speak to him or anyone around him and ... well, that’s it, actually.

“They think you can fight a culture of racism by sticking out your tongue, crossing your arms and stamping your feet. That may sound cathartic, but it is unlikely to be an effective way of winning the argument.

“Pursuing the communal interest is why the Board of Deputies and our colleagues at the Jewish Leadership Council have continued our engagement with these and other Shadow Cabinet members like Angela Rayner, Emily Thornberry and Andrew Gwynne in recent weeks and months.

“To put it simply: it is impossible to advocate for Israel if you won’t speak to the Shadow Foreign Secretary, or to speak up for Jewish schools if you refuse to speak to the Shadow Education Secretary.”

Mrs van der Zyl was responding to an article on the JC website last week by the editor, Stephen Pollard, condemning the invitation. She wrote: “Why is it that when men say these things, they are ‘tough’, and when I say them, I have apparently ‘lost the plot’?”

Mr Pollard had written that the Board’s invitation to Ms Rayner was an “idiotic, craven and deeply counter-productive decision”.

He said that Ms Rayner had not “lifted not a finger in support for and said not a word in solidarity with her fellow Labour MPs battling antisemitic abuse — beyond mouthing the usual platitudes.

“This invitation is a disgrace. It is a betrayal of every one of the victims of Corbynite abuse. It is a betrayal of our community’s stand against Labour antisemitism. And it is a damning indictment of the Board of Deputies leadership.”

On Wednesday, allies of Mrs van der Zyl attempted to defend her from continued criticism of the direction taken by the organisation in recent months over the Labour antisemitism issue.

They pointed to a speech by Ms Rayner to the Jewish Labour Movement North West AGM and claimed she had offered support to Ms Berger over the continued abuse she receives on social media.

They suggested it would be a “total dereliction of duty on the part of the BoD” not to engage with senior figures in Labour close to Mr Corbyn.

In a letter to the JC, barrister Jeremy Brier and QC David Wolfson, Etgar founder Jo Rosenfelder and Jewish Child's Day chair Charles Spungin called Ms Rayner's invitation "disappointing".

They wrote: "When the JLC and the Board led the community saying "Enough is enough", we meant it. Of course engagement and debate are vital, but honouring and entertaining is both sycophantic and unnecessary.

"This is not the time for the Board to split from the united stance we saw over the summer.

"Baroness Chakrabarti was rightly criticised, across the community, for taking an honour from Mr Corbyn after her whitewash of a report.

"While of course no-one at the Board would dream of accepting an honour from Mr Corbyn or his supporters, the Board should not be extending honours to them, either."