Conservatives slammed for attack on Starmer's Shabbat eve tradition

The UK Conservative Party on Monday attacked Labour leader Keir Starmer for taking time off on Friday evenings, representing the politician’s family tradition as an everyday policy.

Starmer had told Virgin Radio on Monday that at 6 p.m. on Friday he didn’t engage in work to spend time with his teenage children, though with some exceptions.

Victoria Starmer, the Labour leader’s wife, is Jewish and told the Jewish Chronicle in 2020 and The Guardian in 2024 that the family keeps some Shabbat traditions such as performing kiddush and having challah.

“Keir Starmer has said he’d clock off work at 6 p.m. if he became prime minister,” the Conservative party said on social media on Monday. “You deserve better than a part-time prime minister.”

The social media post was accompanied by a mock-up of Starmer’s daily agenda, joking that he spent much of his day napping before raising taxes and heading home.

The Tories said that to avoid having a “part-time prime minister” voters would have to vote for the Conservative Party come the Thursday general elections.

Jewish Labour supporters defend Starmer

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that defending Britain’s security “isn’t a daylight hours only job.”

“Virtually every military intervention we’ve carried out has happened at night, partly to keep our servicemen and women safe,” Shapps said on X. “The British people will wonder who would be standing in for Starmer between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. – Angela Rayner, David Lammy, Ed Miliband?”

Jewish Labour Movement chair Mike Katz noted that Starmer had not said he would be off every evening, only on Friday.

Katz said on social media on Wednesday that it was “beyond tawdry to see the Tories attacking Keir Starmer for wanting to spend time with his family and respecting his wife’s Jewish heritage.”

“At the last general election, Labour was the political party failing on antisemitism,” said Katz. “Now it’s the Tories.”