The Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council has told BBC Radio 5
Live that senior Jewish leaders have not had a meeting about
anti-Semitism with the Labour leadership for over 18 months,
despite the leadership suggesting they’d have met as early as July
2018.
Speaking to Emma Barnett, Mr Goldstein also said that he
understood that there are nine Prospective Parliamentary
Candidates standing for the in the General Election who
are currently facing complaints of anti-Semitism.
ON MEETING LABOUR
Mr Goldstein is Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, which
brings together the major British Jewish organisations. On 24
April 2018, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of
Deputies of British Jews met the Labour leadership including
. Following that meeting,
Labour suggested that a meeting would happen again in the coming
months.
Mr Goldstein told Emma Barnett that neither the Jewish Leadership
Council, nor the Board of Deputies of British Jews, nor any
senior mainstream Jewish leader has met the Labour leadership
since then. He said:
“We have sought many times over the course of the past years to
build bridges with the leadership of the . You will recall back in
April 2018 we met with and the leadership group. We
were told we would be invited back so that we could continue to
build bridges. I'm still waiting for that invitation…. We are
still waiting for that repeat invitation.”
He continued:
“I think it's a source of disappointment that, when we left that
meeting in April 2018, there was a briefing that they would be
reapproaching us by the end of July, because all the outstanding
issues will have been dealt with. But the reality is, they
haven't been able to deal with all outstanding issues.”
He added:
“You would have hoped and believed that the would have reached out to us
during that period, to build bridges, to deal with the issue.”
When asked by Emma Barnett whether he had attempted to reach the
Labour leadership himself, he said:
“It was left that they would recontact as, as would normally
occur with a political party. It's not for a minority community
to be haranguing political parties for meetings.”
ON CANDIDATES
Mr Goldstein told Emma Barnett that his understanding is that
there are nine Labour PPCs who face current complaints of
anti-Semitism. He said:
“There are I think nine complaints being made about Prospective
Parliamentary Candidates within the . Not one of them has been
stood down during the period. And most of them have similar
social media histories or other comments that they have made
during the period.”
When asked whether they were being investigated, he said:
“As we understand it, some are and some not. They don't
constitute any of the 130 [outstanding complaints], as they are
in an earlier stage in the process.”
