Conservative response to Labour NEC decision on anti-Semitism

Responding, Brandon Lewis MP, Conservative Party Chairman, said:

“Labour’s failure to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitic racism in full is shameful.

“Jeremy Corbyn promised a ‘kinder politics’, but his party’s watered-down definition of anti-Semitism risks giving a free pass to people who do and say things which have no place in public life.

“The IHRA definition is used by the Labour-run Welsh Government, along with Labour councils across the country, and if Labour are serious about tackling anti-Semitism they should adopt it in full too.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

· The Chief Rabbi warned that failure to adopt the IHRA definition in full would ‘send an unprecedented message of contempt to the Jewish community’. ‘Adoption of Labour's new alternative to the internationally accepted IHRA definition will send an unprecedented message of contempt to the Jewish community’ (BBC News, 17 July 2018, link).

· Keir Starmer attacked Labour’s failure to adopt the IHRA full definition. ‘Councils, institutions across the country have accepted the full definition… I think that's the right position to be in… I would urge everybody within the Labour party to listen to the voices that have come out in recent days and get to a position where we are supporting the full definition’ (The Andrew Marr Show, 8 July 2018, archived).

· Just this week, more than 60 British rabbis wrote a joint letter to Labour accusing the party of acting in ‘the most insulting and arrogant way’. ‘The Labour party’s leadership has chosen to ignore those who understand antisemitism the best, the Jewish community. By claiming to know what’s good for our community, the Labour party’s leadership have chosen to act in the most insulting and arrogant way’ (The Guardian, 16 July 2018, link).

· The chair of the Jewish Leadership Council said the Labour Party is ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’. Jonathan Goldstein said: ‘I’m terribly disappointed we have reached the point where the Jewish community is being singled out by the Labour leadership and treated in a way no other minority would be. If these proposals are formally adopted it would only strengthen the argument that the party has become institutionally anti-Semitic’ (Politics Home, 11 July 2018, link).

· A joint statement by Jewish community groups questioned Labour’s sincerity in tackling anti-Semitism. The JLC and Board of Deputies said: ‘Its actions only dilute the definition and further erode the existing lack of confidence that British Jews have in their sincerity to tackle anti-Semitism within the Labour movement’ (Jewish Leadership Council, 5 July 2018, link).

· Islington Borough Council, the Welsh Government and the London Assembly have adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. The motion to adopt it was put to a vote in Islington Council, and the council resolved ‘to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism and to continue to work to make Islington a welcoming and tolerant place to all communities’ and ‘thoroughly apply this working definition to the Council’s operations’ (Islington Council, 11 May 2017, link; Welsh Government, 23 June 2017, link; London Assembly, 9 February 2017, link).