British Jews Urge Labour Leader Keir Starmer to Maintain Effort to Root Out Antisemitism
Britain Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. Photo: Reuters / Simon Dawson.
British Jewish leaders met on Wednesday with Labour leader Keir Starmer, declaring their support for his ongoing efforts to eradicate antisemitism from the party’s ranks.
“We thanked Keir Starmer and the Labour Party for their firm and constructive response to the damning verdict delivered by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last week,” a statement from the delegation stated.
In a much-anticipated report published last week, the EHRC — a government body — determined that the Labour Party under its previous leader Jeremy Corbyn was responsible for illegal antisemitic harassment and discrimination.
Corbyn, who came from Labour’s far left, was suspended from the party after claiming that the report had “dramatically overstated” the level of antisemitism during his five years as leader “for political reasons.”
The delegation expressed “disgust” with Corbyn’s reaction, contrasting it with Starmer’s response.
The statement asserted: “If the Labour Party is to show zero tolerance to antisemitism, there can be no unity with antisemites or their enablers. Indeed, the EHRC rightly dismissed such political considerations as being inappropriate for an issue in which Labour has moral and legal responsibilities.”
The delegation concluded by “recognizing the progress made, but that there is still a long way to go.”
“We expressed our ongoing willingness to work with Keir Starmer and Labour to return the Party to being proudly and unequivocally anti-racist once more,” they said.