Labour deputy leadership candidate Ian Murray has challenged
rival candidates in the contest to explain what they did from the
frontbench to address the stain of antisemitism in the party.
Mr Murray spoke out ahead of the Jewish Labour Movement’s deputy
leadership hustings in Manchester this evening.
Mr Murray has published a detailed submission he has sent to JLM,
in which he states: “I want to say a heartfelt and meaningful
apology. The has treated you appallingly
and I know that the next leader and deputy leader will have to
spend years repairing this relationship.”
He has questioned why some of the other candidates for deputy
leader have failed to sign the Board of Deputies’ pledges on
tackling antisemitism, branding this ‘deeply disappointing’.
With everyone else in the contest holding a shadow ministerial
position, he has also asked what they did to address the problem
with and the leadership.
If he is elected deputy leader, Mr Murray has demanded that every
outstanding antisemitism case is on his desk on the Monday after
the contest.
He will demand that Labour expels people who have been found to
have engaged in any sort of antisemitism; extend political
education about antisemitism across the party; defend the party’s
adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism; and implement,
without hesitation, any recommendations that come from the
Equality and Human Rights Commission when it reports this year.
He has received the support of MP and former MP .
A video of Mr Murray addressing the stain of antisemitism has
been viewed nearly 60,000 times.
, Labour deputy leadership
candidate, said:
“I never want to knock on a door again when the resident won’t
vote Labour for the first ever time because of antisemitism.
“The last few years have seen bullying and intimidation inside
the that should utterly shame us.
And there is nothing that should shame us more than the
anti-Jewish hatred in our ranks.
“It sickens me and as deputy leader I will take responsibility
for rooting it out.
“And if it’s not done under my watch then I’ll resign as deputy
leader, because I won’t tolerate antisemitism within the
.
“Everyone in the contest now says they want to tackle
antisemitism, but I want to know what on earth they have been
doing for the past three-and-a-half years from the frontbench?
“I did not think twice about signing the Board of Deputies’
pledges on antisemitism and it’s deeply disappointing that some
candidates are not prepared to take the action that the Jewish
community demands. They need to justify that decision.
“But the bottom line is that a debate about process is not what
is needed - what is needed is for this to be sorted.
“Never again do I want any Jewish person to feel they do not have
a home in the , that they can’t trust us to
do the right thing, or feel our party would make the country a
more dangerous place for them.”
, former Labour MP for
Stoke-on-Trent North, said:
“On a personal level, the devastating and seemingly unending
horror of the anti-Jewish hate that has been empowered from
certain quarters in our party has been heart-breaking, and the
anti-racist fight has at times been a lonely one.
“Too many abandoned us when we needed them. Ian Murray was not
one of those people.
“His personal private support, his interventions within the PLP,
and his public statements made sure that I wasn’t alone. That
solidarity really was more than a word. Ian was one of those who
shielded me after yet another PLP meeting from hell.
“He was one of my friends who took me for dinner to make sure
that I laughed that night, not cried. He proved himself to be,
always, a mensch – a good man.”
In response to Mr Murray’s video comments, , MP for Barking,
wrote:
“Thank you Ian Murray for being brutally honest about this,
somebody has to be.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
Ian Murray video: https://twitter.com/IanMurrayMP/status/1226474856465735680
Ian’s submission to the Jewish Labour Movement: https://murrayfordeputy.co.uk/tackling-antisemitism-in-labour/
Details on the JLM hustings: https://www.jewishlabour.uk/events
Board of Deputies’ antisemitism pledge: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/richard-burgon-dawn-butler-wont-21308415
