Jewish community says Keir Starmer still has questions to answer on his previous support for Jeremy Corbyn
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British Jews have welcomed Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to bar Jeremy Corbyn from standing again as a Labour MP, but some may still have “legitimate questions” over his time serving in his predecessor’s shadow cabinet, a Jewish community leader has said.
After, the Equality and Human Rights Commission lifted the Labour Party out of special measures over its handling of anti-Semitism complaints, Sir Keir promised that Mr Corbyn, who has already lost the whip and sits as an independent for Islington North, would not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in the next election.
“What I said about the party changing meant that we are not going back and that is why Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election,” the Labour leader said.
Claudia Mendoza, co-chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, told i she thought it was “absolutely right” Mr Corbyn was excluded from standing, but that some people had “legitimate questions” over Sir Keir’s time as a frontbencher in his predecessor’s shadow Cabinet.
“We were all there when he stood under Corbyn and defended Corbyn and so how he is quite able to answer or defend that I don’t know,” she said.
“Of course people will have legitimate questions about what he did when he was in shadow Cabinet under Jeremy Corbyn, I don’t think it’s wrong to ask those questions.”
She said she did not know how Sir Keir could explain his previous support or role in Mr Corbyn’s shadow Cabinet without “throwing himself under the bus”, and that some in the Jewish community may still not trust him given his previous support of Mr Corbyn.
However, Ms Mendoza emphasised that Sir Keir had done an “awful” lot of work in addressing problems around anti-semitism, and that many Jews were happy to rejoin his party after support amongst the community plummeted during Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
“It is really important that we look forward and not look backwards, and he is our key to looking forward and dealing with this issue,” she said.
“He’s made it clear that the Labour Party is a very different place under this leadership, the first thing he did when becoming leader was to say he would root anti-Semitism out of the party.
When asked about his previous role in Mr Corbyn’s shadow Cabinet today, Sir Keir said “he challenged the Labour leader on anti-Semitism both in the shadow Cabinet and publicly”.
While Ms Mendoza described today’s EHRC decision as a landmark moment, she cautioned that it was not a timefor celebration. “To celebrate what we heard today would be to lower the bar about what is and isn’t acceptable in public discourse in a political party,” she said.
David Rich, director of policy at the Community Security Trust, a Jewish safety charity, said Sir Keir’s decision to continue Corbyn’s expulsion was a “powerful symbol”.
“It sends a very strong message to the Jewish Community but also to other people who were part of that hard-left fringe who caused a lot of the problems under Corbyn,” he said.
Mr Corbyn this evening claimed that his ban from standing as a Labour MP was an “attack on the democratic rights” of his constituents and that he had fought for his community for 40 years.
In a statement posted to Twitter, he said: “Keir Starmer’s statement about my future is a flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members. It is up to them – not party leaders – to decide who their candidate should be. Any attempt to block my candidacy is a denial of due process, and should be opposed by anybody who believes in the value of democracy.”
Mr Rich said Mr Corbyn’s continued insistence that he was unfairly treated and that the anti-Semitism row was a political manoeuvring against him showed he did not want to take responsibility for the problem.
“From our perspective this was always about what this meant for the Jewish community and the growth of anti-Semitism in politics was an absolutely appalling and intolerable situation for the Jewish community, and seeing that reversed is a really important step in the right direction for us,” said Mr Rich.
Professor David Feldman, director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, said expulsion of problematic individuals from the party was appropriate in some cases, but would not go the whole way to tackling a deep-rooted anti-Semitism that had existed in western societies for hundreds of years.
He said anti-Semitism should be distinguished from anti-Zionism. “The danger is that there is a climate that genuine concerns about anti-Semitism can create a climate which inhibits necessary criticism of Israel,” he said.
He also added that he hoped this latest move from Labour was one part of a “180-degree” anti-racism move and that it responded to the racism experience of other minorities in the party with the same “determination and vigour”.