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Senior Conservative MP attacks Board of Deputies's 'left of centre political agenda'

Exclusive: Robert Halfon says Board no longer represents Conservatives - spokesman calls his remarks 'ignorant...disingenuous and outright false'

April 26, 2020 07:13
Robert Halfon MP
4 min read

Senior Conservative MP Robert Halfon has launched an outspoken attack on the current political direction of the Board of Deputies after accusing the communal organisation of becoming a "political broadcasting service" for the Labour Party.
 
Mr Halfon - Chair of the Education Select Committee and a former Minister without Portfolio under Theresa May - said that in its most recent weekly email update on its activities the Board had failed to reflect any of the Passover messages sent to the community by senior figures within his party, or even to wish Prime Minister Boris Johnson a "good recovery".
 
The Harlow MP told the JC he believed the Board needed "radical reform" and suggested it no longer represented Conservatives such as himself who worked "day and night for the Jewish community". 
 
Mr Halfon said he had decided to speak out after receiving the Board's Community Briefing update on engagements undertaken, dated April 23.
 
The emailed briefing - which is sent to politicians, Deputies and other leading communal figures - led on noting the tribute message recorded by the Prince of Wales for survivors at the Yom Hashoah commemoration.
 
But the update was dominated by lengthy notification of the Board's meetings with Labour shadow cabinet figures including  Lisa Nandy, Nick Thomas-Symonds, Steve Reed and Wayne David.
 
Meanwhile a meeting between the Board and the new Conservative Party chair Amanda Milling received just two lines - which focused on allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in her party.
 
Mr Halfon told the JC: "It seems astonishing that the Board of Deputies's briefing for MPs reads like a political broadcasting service for shadow opposition figures.
 
"It could not even find the opportunity to wish the Prime Minister Boris Johnson a good recovery - or mention the Passover messages by senior Conservative leaders to the Jewish community.
 
"And there were just two lines on the meeting the Board had with the new chair of the Conservative Party Amanda Milling and they were critical."
 
Mr Halfon, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party under David Cameron, has been closely associated with the Board for many years - and regularly sponsored the organisation's annual Chanukah reception in Westminster.

But in December 2018 the Labour Party's then shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner - now deputy leader - was controversially invited to address the event, without the knowledge of Mr Halfon.
 
He added on Friday: "The Board of Deputies clearly needs radical reform because it seems to be intent on pursuing a left of centre political agenda and no longer wants to represent Conservatives in a positive light."
 
"A lot of people have just had enough with the direction of this organisation which calls itself  the representative body of British Jews. 
 
"It certainly doesn't represent me or those Conservatives who are very sympathetic and who work day and night for the Jewish community." 

The Board of Deputies responded furiously to Mr Halfon's remarks.

A spokesman said:  “JLC Vice President Robert Halfon has let himself down with these comments, which range from the surprisingly ignorant to disingenuous and outright false.

“The Board of Deputies engages with all mainstream parties without fear or favour. After Boris Johnson appointed his Cabinet last July, we spent the next weeks and months meeting the Conservative frontbench, including the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary and the Communities Secretary.