Since the day Keir Starmer became Labour leader in 2020, he has made repairing relations with Britain’s Jews a top priority, calling anti-Semitism a “stain” on the party.
On Thursday, many British Jews who turned their backs on Labour in the 2019 general election gave the party another chance, winning back several constituencies in north London with large Jewish populations.
A poll of 2,717 Jewish adults found that nearly half of Jewish voters plan to back Labour in Thursday’s election. Jewish Current Affairs Survey This photo was taken in June, before the election.
Britain’s 287,000 Jews make up less than 0.5% of the country’s population, and some have been politically homeless under the leadership of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has been accused of allowing anti-Semitism to run rampant within the party. Under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Jewish support for the party fell to a low of 11% in the 2019 general election, according to the Jewish Policy Institute, which focuses on Jewish life in Europe.
“It’s very clear that Jews are flocking back to what has long been their natural political home,” said Jonathan Boyd, executive director of the London-based Jewish Policy Institute.
Sarah Sackman, Labour’s candidate in Finchley and Golders Green, a north London constituency with one in five Jewish voters, the largest proportion of voters in Britain, won on Thursday. Labour’s candidates also won in Hendon, a north London constituency with 14 per cent of voters Jewish, and Chipping Barnet, with 7 per cent of voters Jewish.
Josh Simons, a Jewish Labour politician who was elected on Thursday as the MP for the Makerfield constituency in west Manchester, said Labour’s win in north London showed Jewish voters could trust the party again.
“The reversal in the relationship between Labour and the Jewish community in Britain is quite extraordinary,” said Mr Simons, citing Mr Starmer’s willingness to oust Labour politicians who had made anti-Semitic comments. “The Jewish community has seen the choices he has made and little by little they are starting to rebuild trust.”
Mr Starmer, who describes himself as an atheist, is married to Victoria Starmer, who comes from a Jewish family. Mr Starmer said his family sometimes went to a liberal synagogue and told Virgin Radio UK that he got off work at 6pm on Friday nights. Mr Starmer has stuck to his words even after Tory politicians accused him of wanting to become a part-time prime minister.
“I think it would be completely natural to everyone that in some religions and faiths, Friday night is a very important night,” he said at a campaign event in Derbyshire, England.
In 2020, Mr Starmer expelled Mr Corbyn from the party after a report by Britain’s human rights watchdog found the party was responsible for “unlawful harassment and discrimination” against Jewish members under Mr Corbyn’s watch. Complaints against Mr Corbyn included his support for a mural featuring bizarre caricatures of Jewish bankers.
After initially claiming the party’s anti-Semitism problem had been exaggerated, Mr Corbyn later issued a statement saying “the vast majority of Labour members have been and remain committed anti-racists who strongly oppose anti-Semitism”.
Labour’s surge in support among Jewish voters comes as the party appears to be losing ground among British Muslims, some of whom have criticised Mr Starmer for taking too long to commit to a separate Palestinian state. At least four constituencies that were Labour strongholds won on Thursday, with candidates offering alternatives to the party’s Gaza policy.
In a constituency in Leicester, England, Shawkat Adam Patel, an independent candidate, beat Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, who was expected to take a cabinet role in Starmer’s new government. “This is for Gaza,” he said. In Islington, Corbyn, an independent candidate, won a Labour seat on a platform focused on Gaza.
