Sir Keir’s Jewish candidate for Finchley opens up about family life - The Jewish Chronicle

THE newly-selected Labour candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, which has one of the country’s biggest Jewish electorates, has told the JC that Judaism and its values lie at the core of her political beliefs.

Environment barrister Sarah Sackman, 37, who has been vice chair of the Jewish Labour Movement for the past eight years, also said she was convinced that under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, Labour was now “a safe space for Jewish members and the Jewish community”.

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Sir Keir Starmer (Getty Images)

She said she missed this year’s Labour conference because it coincided with Rosh Hashanah, but was delighted when she read in this newspaper’s front page report that Sir Keir received a standing ovation when he said he was remained determined to “root out” antisemitism.

“It reflected the journey that the party has been on,” she told the JC. “Not every case of antisemitism has been dealt with, and it never will be.

But we have made the systemic changes required to deal with the letter and spirit of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report on the problem, and I feel comfortable putting myself forward as a Labour Party candidate.

“Sir Keir understood from day one that Labour would not deserve to be heard either by Jews or the electorate as a whole unless we were serious about tackling this.”

Ms Sackman, a mother of two married to another lawyer, stood in the same constituency in 2015, when she was beaten by the current Tory MP Mike Freer, now a junior minister. Her family attends the Masorti New North London synagogue in her constituency, where she often leads the children’s Shabbat service and her own children go to cheder.

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Sarah Sackman (centre,, front)

“Being Jewish enriches my life enormously,” she said, “and Jewish values such as a commitment to social justice are indelibly a part of my life in politics.”

She revealed that her own background is both Ashkenazi and Sephardi: her father is a north London solicitor of east European descent, while the different lineages of her mother’s family moved from Spain, Italy and Morocco to Gibraltar 300 years ago. They own a 150-year old perfumery in the British enclave, Ms Sackman said.

A member of Matrix Chambers, which was co-founded by Cherie Blair, Ms Sackman is an avowed moderate social democrat. She said: “I always taken the view that what Labour did in the Blair-Brown years was something to be proud of — such as lifting a million children out of poverty.

“What’s exciting about our current leadership is that it is showing we can win votes from the centre ground — which means we can deliver for people who vote for us in a non-tribal way. That means meeting people with policies that reflect where they are.”

She said she was optimistic about taking the seat. Although Mr Freer gained a healthy majority of 6,500 in 2019, the left-wing vote was split between Labour and the former Liverpool Labour MP Luciana Berger, who had left the party over the antisemitism she experienced when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and was standing for the Liberal Democrats.

Ms Sackman pointed out that in May’s local elections, Labour had done extremely well locally — “and that was before the changes of prime minister and the disastrous mini-budget”.

She said she was “deeply concerned” by the result of the recent Israeli election, which means that the far-right leaders Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Shmotrich are likely to become ministers in Binyamin Netanhyahu’s incoming coalition.

“I know many people in the Jewish community feel the same way about their inflammatory rhetoric towards gays, non-orthodox Jews and Palestinian citizens,” Ms Sackman said. “These are views with which we should have no truck.”

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Sarah Sackman with constituents

She said she was especially worried by their pledge to undermine the independence of Israel’s Supreme Court and to make it subordinate to the Knesset: “I spent time as a law clerk at the Israeli Supreme Court when I was a trainee barrister, and the independence of the judiciary has always been a pillar of Israeli democracy. If it comes under attack we should be deeply concerned.”

She said a future Labour government would continue to regard British ties with Israel as important. But she said it must continue to advocate for a negotiated peace with the Palestinians, and for “democratic values”.

She added: “I am in favour of dialogue and keeping relations open. At the same time, we have to recognise that a true friend is a friend who is prepared to be critical.”

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