Labour’s new leader Keir Starmer has described his apology to members of Britain’s Jewish community in his victory speech on Saturday as a “value statement, a matter of principle”.
Sir Keir, who made the apology his first act as party leader, won the leadership contest in the first ballot with 56.2 per cent of the vote.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “I didn’t do [my apology] to win votes, I did that because it was a value statement, a matter of principle.
“And then I spent yesterday afternoon making a number of calls reaching out to leaders in the Jewish community to demonstrate that I want to rebuild the trust that we have to rebuild.
“It’s going to be a long road, it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but I hope I’ve put in at least the first steps yesterday.”
Sir Keir added on the programme that the test of his success would be the return of Jewish former members and MPs like Dame Louise Ellman to the party.
He said: “When Louise Elman left our party I had a discussion with her two days later and I said to her ‘the test for me of whether we’ve dealt with this in the Labour Party is when people like you, Louise, feel like you can come back to our party.’
“So I will judge it not in numbers but do people feel comfortable coming back to our party and other people who felt they can't support us. So that will be my test.”
Ms Ellman resigned from Labour in October last year after a motion of no confidence in her was scheduled by her constituency party, initially on Yom Kippur.
She said she had left because antisemitism had surged in the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and she could not stomach him as a possible prime minister.
In a letter sent to Board President on Saturday evening, Sir Keir wrote: "Please be assured of my sympathy and solidarity at this time, and if there is anything the Labour Party can do, please let me know.''
Sir Keir said he would like to hold a "video conference" with the Board, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Community Security Trust and the Jewish Labour Movement, stressing he wanted to personally write to Mrs van der Zyl on becoming leader to confirm his commitment to stamping out anti-Jewish racism in his party.
He said his office "would be in touch shortly" to organise the meeting.
Sir Keir Starmer’s letter to the Board of Deputies president
