Opinion
Future promise shows all is not lost for Labour Jews
There is a fascinating irony on the fringes of the Labour Party’s apparent impending implosion.
May 4, 2017 09:48
1 min read
There is a fascinating irony on the fringes of the Labour Party’s apparent impending implosion.
May 4, 2017 09:48Whatever the election outcome for the left, one group has a brighter future than the past two years would have led us to believe — Labour Jews.
The selection of so many impressive Jewish Labour Movement candidates across the country means that, win or lose, the JLM is ensured a sizeable role in Labour’s future.
By Wednesday at least five JLM members had been selected to stand as parliamentary candidates. Another seven Labour Jews will seek re-election to the Commons. On top of that, JLM activists have been campaigning nationwide for candidates in areas with no Jewish community whatsoever.
Put to one side disagreements over the tactic of putting up Jewish candidates in seats with large proportions of Jewish voters in an obvious attempt to soften the Corbyn effect.
The result of the JLM’s move is far more significant. After June 8 there will be either a series of new Jewish Labour MPs, or the credible framework for such an eventuality in either 2022 or 2027.
The candidates’ experiences on the ground will set them up for future elections, when some of them are likely to be rewarded by the party with candidacies in safe seats.
Rhea Wolfson is standing in Livingston in her mid-20s. Seen as a rising star, she sits on the party’s national executive committee after more than 85,000 party supporters voted for her to take the key role.
She may overturn an SNP majority of nearly 17,000. More likely she will make a decent dent in that number — giving her, or a Labour colleague, a better chance at the next election. Irrespective of the party’s fate next month, it would be inexplicable if Ms Wolfson did not find herself in the Commons in the next decade.
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s grip on the party will not last forever, and when they are gone — having overseen the erosion of both popular support for Labour and the decimation of the Parliamentary party — someone sensible will have to put Labour back together again. They will need considerable help, and a new generation of Jewish Labourites will be on hand to offer it.
I have reported extensively on both the resurgence of the JLM in the past 18 months and on the dramatic collapse of Jewish backing for the party.
But only now is it clear just how successfully the group has operated — it has laid the groundwork for a positive future for Jewish Labour members and supporters against supposedly insurmountable odds.
