By, Marcus Dysch
2 min read
There was one peculiarity in Westminster that you may have missed in the annual fog of confusion associated with keeping up with what is happening in the world while marking four major chagim in as many weeks.
On the afternoon of Kol Nidre last week, the Commons committee investigating rising antisemitism slipped in a previously unscheduled, last minute, hearing.
This was the panel of MPs looking at Jew-hate via submissions of “evidence” from notable politicians and experts.
The session came as a surprise, given that the hearing in July, at which the Chief Rabbi spoke, had been announced as the final one before the committee produced its report.
The Home Affairs Committee told me the additional date was added specifically to give the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives a chance to have their say.
Within hours, there was a follow-up message: the Tories were not going to be able to send anyone. Only Tim Farron would appear. Strange.
Weirder still, when the session began, stand-in chair Tim Loughton, himself a Conservative MP, welcomed Sir Eric Pickles, the party’s former chairman and the government’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues.
Mr Loughton made a point of recording the fact that the Tories would be the only party whose leader had not appeared to give evidence.
He later had a second go at his own party, explaining how the committee had tried for nearly four months to secure the Prime Minister’s attendance. While David Cameron had promised to appear, and Sir Patrick McLoughlin, the current Tory chairman, provided a written statement, “no response” was initially received from Theresa May’s team.
Mr Loughton said the Home Secretary had been lined up to step in for Mrs May, but “then couldn’t do it”.
The committee’s inquiry started out as a bit of a sideshow, set-up by publicity-seeking Keith Vaz before his own downfall.
But the response to the publication of its report on Sunday shows how effective it was in practice.
MPs took significant contributions from those who know what they are talking about, such as John Mann, the MP who heads the all-party group against antisemitism, and from the Community Security Trust.
And, inevitably, its findings have been taken far more seriously than those of Baroness Chakrabarti’s utterly discredited internal Labour inquiry.
No doubt the Prime Minister has her hands full. Brexit alone will occupy most of the Cabinet for years to come.
Regardless of how often senior Tories outline their affinity for British Jews and their commitment to tackling antisemitism, to be the only party which failed to send its leader to the committee does not look good. As the report itself puts it, the Tory response was “very disappointing”. It suggests a worrying complacency.
It also allows Jeremy Corbyn, so dogged by accusations of antisemitism against his close allies, at least to pop up at any point and say to Mrs May: “I turned up, why couldn’t you?”
Then again, given the committee’s damning findings that Mr Corbyn does not fully understand contemporary antisemitism, he may find he has enough problems of his own.
