Update 25 June 2024: A poll of 2,717 Jewish people suggests that support for Labour among Jewish voters has surged to 46 per cent under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, up from a record low of 11 per cent when Jeremy Corbyn was in charge. The survey, commissioned by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), said Labour’s share of the prospective Jewish vote was higher than the national average (42 per cent).. Jewish Chronicle report here
Report by Lianne Kolirin
If the poll results are to be trusted, Sir Keir Starmer is highly likely to become Britain’s next prime minister. How is the Jewish community, which turned its back on Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, feeling about the party returning to government?
“We are not a monolithic entity when it comes to voting,” said Daniel Sugarman, director of public affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews. “The concerns Jewish people have are the same that people have throughout the population. Of course, there are certain issues which the Jewish community are concerned about, but things like the cost of living, healthcare and education are obviously concerns the Jewish community completely shares.”
Dame Louise Ellman, who quit Labour in 2019 after 55 years of membership over concerns about antisemitism, agrees.
“By and large there isn’t a single Jewish vote — people vote according to their views, their own life and how they want to see society,” she told the Religion Media Centre. “But there are some issues that affect most Jewish people and that could be seen most clearly in the Corbyn years when Labour was seen as an antisemitic party.”
With Corbyn at the helm, the party was perceived by many within Britain’s Jewish community to have a widespread antisemitism problem, which was confirmed by the subsequent inquiry led by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
A survey carried out by Survation for the Jewish Chronicle in 2019 revealed that only 7 per cent of the Jewish community would support Labour at an election, but that figure rose to 42 per cent when asked if they would support the party under a different leader.
In an unprecedented move Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, writing in The Times in November 2019 — weeks before the election — described Corbyn as “unfit for high office” and issued a stark warning for the country.
When Corbyn resigned after losing the 2019 elections, he was replaced by Sir Keir, who pledged “zero tolerance” of anti-Jewish hatred within the party’s ranks. Dame Louise rejoined the party almost two years later, reassured by Starmer’s commitment.
“I don’t think the problems have completely gone and there is clearly some antisemitism … in the party still, but things that were happening could never happen in today’s Labour Party,” she said. “The whole culture has changed but that isn’t to say it’s 100 per cent free of antisemitism — but it is a very changed party. And that’s why I rejoined.”
Rising antisemitism in Britain is a concern, but it is not specific to Labour, she believes. “There is a great deal of anxiety about what happened on October 7, concerns about displays of hatred on the streets and a rise in antisemitic incidents,” she said.
Her former colleague Luciana Berger, who also returned to the party after quitting during the Corbyn years, echoed this in a recent interview with the The Sunday Times in which she said: ”This [antisemitism] is everyone’s problem. History tells us that what starts with antisemitism doesn’t end there. But what’s different about it this time is that it’s not coming from within the Labour Party.”
Mr Sugarman believes the Corbyn era is the “closest we came” to a Jewish vote. Looking back, he said: “What our organisation wanted and what members of the community wanted was for the Jewish community to be able to go into the polling booth on election day and feel like they had a proper choice.” In 2017 or 2019 many felt they had no proper choice, he believed.
Today the situation is not “remotely comparable”, though the impact of 7 October would weigh heavily. “I think it’s important that political parties show an understanding of the situation that Israel finds itself in and the determination to bring home the hostages and whatever possible to ensure Hamas is no longer a force within the Palestinian scene,” he said.
The issue has had a massive impact on the global Jewish community, which for many here in Britain is focused on rising antisemitism and hostility at weekly anti-Israel demonstrations. “Since 7 October something that has really come to the forefront is policing and how those demonstrations have been dealt with,” Mr Sugarman said.
“This isn’t just one protest — it’s week after week after week and everything is brought to a standstill. I think the Jewish community is looking for political parties to really demonstrate an understanding of that and set out how they will come up with something that deals with this.”
One group that may not attract many Jewish votes is the Green Party, which has made headlines in recent weeks over alleged antisemitic statements from some members. It says it took “decisive action” against a small number of people who wanted to stand as candidates, and it would never allow anybody antisemitic to stand for them.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, a Tory peer, agrees there is no such thing as a “Jewish vote,” but believes 7 October served to “highlight where there remain problems and fault lines in our society”.
He told the RMC: “To see some politicians saying and tweeting things on 7, 8, 9, 10 October — before Israel had fired a shot — was really quite remarkable
He admits the Jewish community is a disparate one and “you can find Jews to support almost any position”, yet “poll after poll after polls shows support for Israel as a Jewish state is something which the overwhelming majority of Jews in this country have”.
Attitudes like those reported among the Greens may turn Jewish voters away, yet the split between Conservative and Labour is negligible, he believes.
“Jews don’t vote en bloc,” he said. “Jews tend to vote in accordance with how people of their particular socioeconomic class and region would vote.” There are some exceptions, he said, “but in electoral terms it’s all pretty marginal”.
“The Jewish community is very small — you’re talking 250,000 to 280,000 people. And of those, there are lots of people who are too young to vote and some won’t be entitled to vote.” Furthermore, the community is split over numerous constituencies with only a handful “where the number of Jewish registered voters is actually a meaningful, let alone determinative, number”.
Certain north London constituencies, such as Finchley and Golders Green, Hendon, and Chipping Barnet, have significant Jewish populations, while outside the capital the impact might also be felt in Hertsmere in Hertfordshire, and Bury South in Greater Manchester.
Perhaps the best example of how Jewish voters do not speak with one voice is the case of the ultra-orthodox community in London’s Stamford Hill.
Controversy has raged in recent weeks over whether Diane Abbott, a Labour MP for 37 years, should be allowed to stand for the party after she was suspended last year for suggesting Jewish, Irish and traveller people do not experience racism. She has since apologised and the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in her Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency are taking her at her word, according to Rabbi Herschel Gluck, a resident and president of community safety organisation Shomrim in the area.
He told the RMC: ““She has made mistakes and she has apologised for them but I think her record in general has been extremely good. She has very strong support owing to her acting very strongly in support of the local Jewish community. We are British Jews and local issues are paramount.”
Jewish voters in Britain “have been on a journey,” Lord Wolfson said. In the early 20th century, their natural home was Labour. “Jews were relatively poor and working class and tended to vote Labour at that time,” he said. “Conservatives were then very unwelcoming to Jews — there was no doubt a good dose of old-fashioned English antisemitism in it.
“The Conservative Party at that time was a very different party from the one it is today,” he said, adding that many of Labour’s core values — including welfare and healthcare — were seen as being at the heart of Judaism. As people prospered, their political views might have moved to the right — but Conservatism also changed.
“The Conservative Party became welcoming to Jews and also adopted a very pro-Israel position,” he said. “Everybody today believes that there should be pensions, everybody believes there should be a healthcare system now, everybody believes in a national minimum wage. The sort of society we want to live in is agreed. If you look at our election from abroad you’d actually think how close the two parties are. But if you looked at them 60 years ago … they’d be miles and miles apart.
“There are people who are very popular among the Jewish community but have shown that it’s not tribal. You will find lots of individuals who would have voted for Wilson and Callaghan but then Thatcher. They may have voted for Major but also voted for Blair. They may have voted for Cameron but they may vote for Starmer.”
