New PM Keir Starmer shows why UK Jews can trust Labour again - opinion

What a difference four years makes.

At the last general election in 2019, Labour sunk to an 80-year low, weighed down in no small part by then-leader Jeremy Corbyn’s inability and unwillingness to take action on the crisis of antisemitism that had infected our party.

Contrast that with this Thursday’s general election, where Labour ended up winning all three constituencies in Barnet, north London, the local authority with the largest Jewish population in the country.

In short, thanks to Labour leader, and now Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, British Jews feel they can trust Labour again.

This became apparent from his first words on becoming the leader in 2020. The country had just gone into lockdown; Starmer could have just focussed on the shock of that. Instead, he led with an apology to the Jewish community for the antisemitism crisis that had enveloped the party.

Starmer has been unwavering in showing zero tolerance for antisemitism. He understood that, at heart, this was a moral crusade for a party that had always prided itself on being one of equality and tolerance for minorities. He has called anti-Zionist antisemitism the “antithesis of the Labour tradition”, pledging to “identify, confront and root [it] out.”

For us in the Jewish Labour Movement (the affiliated voice of Jews in the Party for more than a century,) when he became Leader it was as if a switch had been flicked. Overnight we went from being marginalised and ignored to being a vital partner for Starmer and his team, consulted along with other communal organisations in the significant process of change.

Commitment to Labour's renewal and Jewish representation

Time after time, Keir Starmer has demonstrated his commitment to tackling anti-Jewish hatred and to making Labour a safe space for Jews once more.

It hasn’t always been an easy process making the cultural, as well as the institutional, changes called for by the independent Equality and Human Rights Commission, following JLM’s submission on Labour to that body. Antisemitism is a light sleeper, and we know we can never stop being vigilant.

Certainly, since the terrorist atrocity on 7th October, things have got tougher. But - unlike in 2019 - the spike we’ve seen in antisemitism isn’t purely a product of bad actors in the Labour Party. It’s a problem for society and a problem that we all need to fix.

Many Labour members, like many British Jews, want to see an end to the war in Gaza and a renewal of Israeli democracy through elections. There’s undoubtedly pressure from parts of the left and many British Muslim communities for Labour to take a more aggressive stance.

Its failure to do so cost Labour in a handful seats, with independent candidates profiting from the Party’s failure to play student politics with foreign policy.

Indeed, Labour’s position will continue to be consistent with that of the previous Government and, more significantly, that of the US. Hostages must be released, we need both a ceasefire and humanitarian aid as a prelude to a long-term, two-state peace deal.

In its manifesto, Labour repeated its commitment to recognizing a Palestinian state only “as a contribution to a renewed peace process” - not unilaterally or as a day-one stunt. As Starmer often says, under his watch, Labour has become a party of power, not protest.

And he understands our community’s fears about hate at protests well. At JLM’s flagship conference earlier this year, talking about marches, he said when the community sees  “people who hate Jews, hiding behind people who support the just cause of a Palestinian state, we see what you see.”

In his initial speeches as the first Labour Prime Minister for 14 years, Starmer has rightly made clear his intention to put our country before his party; an outlook which was sadly absent under the previous Conservative administration. This will be the case when it comes to the Middle East as much as domestic policy.

This is all to come. For now, we can enjoy the addition of half a dozen new Jewish Labour MPs to the House of Commons - all proud Zionists; something which was frankly unthinkable four years ago.

Mike Katz is the National Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement