Gerald Ronson, Mark Gardner, Lisa Ronson, Sir Lloyd Dorfman and their colleagues brought the Jewish community and their supporters together as only they can to listen to the Home Secretary and the leader of the opposition pledge support for their vital work in protecting the Jewish community.
Some were unhappy that Starmer had the opportunity to speak, but the CST is an apolitical charity and if the leader of the opposition attends, then of course he should have the opportunity to address the guests.
Both speeches were warmly received, with a standing ovation for the Home Secretary who announced an additional £1 million for the CST'S vital work.
Given that it was the first time many in the room will have heard the Labour leader, he could have taken the opportunity to address concerns about his support for Jeremy Corbyn during the period when antisemitism poisoned the party.
After all, in 2019, he said, ‘I do think Jeremy Corbyn would make a great Prime Minister’.
When Louise Ellman said that Corbyn was ‘a danger to the Jewish community’, Starmer insisted: ‘I don’t accept that. I don’t accept that’.
And in 2020 during the leadership election, he even attacked those who campaigned against him, saying: ‘The attacks on Jeremy Corbyn were terrible, they vilified him.’
His supporters insist it is not necessary for him to apologise personally, but his challenge is not to persuade the already committed. He needs to reach out to those who still harbour doubts and concerns about his support for Corbyn.
His job is to do everything he can to eliminate every barrier to voting Labour.
Tony Blair once told me that he thought his role was to make it as easy as possible to vote Labour. If he met someone who did not support him, he did not blame them, but asked himself what he could do to dispel their doubts and earn their trust.
So the question is not whether he thinks he has anything to apologise for or what his cheerleaders believe. If you've offended someone, you need to listen to them and apologise.
The best Sir Keir has managed so far is to say sorry on behalf of his party, not for himself.
It is easy to fight antisemitism in the Labour Party now, but whether he and his supporters like it or not, people do ask where he was when it was more difficult. This is why he does need to account for his support for Corbyn’s leadership and his absence from the fight to tackle the racism that poisoned the party under his leadership.
And no one should expect to be praised for it anyway. For the leader of a party whose proud history of fighting for equality and justice was soiled under Jeremy Corbyn’s terrible leadership, it ought to be the most basic requirement of the job, not something to boast about or expect to be thanked for.
It is true to say Keir Starmer did not do very much when the Labour Party was being poisoned by racism and extremism under Jeremy Corbyn. It is also fair to say that he has tried to do something about it since he became leader.
In the end, how people vote will depend on which of those facts they think is more important.
