• I WAS delighted to see the statement on anti-Semitism issued by the executive of the Holborn & St Pancras Labour Party.

It is a strong, positive, reaffirmation of our determination to drive this manifestation of racism out of our party.

I say this having attended the meeting of the Jewish Labour Movement on the previous Wednesday.

Around 300 people participated and were linked to a similar meeting in Manchester. What was immediately clear was just how furious the members were.

One after another they got up and expressed their sadness and anger at finding anti-Semitism so deeply embedded in the Labour Party that many had supported all their lives.

The meeting was saved by the interventions of three brave women: Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman.

These MPs explained – each in their own way – the barrage of abuse and vile anti-Semitism that they have faced. Their stories were heart-rending.

Ruth Smeeth explained how she had spent three years attempting to convince Jeremy Corbyn of the vile anti-Semitism that is afflicting our party and asking him to act decisively to bring it to an end.

She had begun quietly and in private. His response was, in her view, entirely inadequate and failed to meet the challenge this crisis presents. Ruth Smeeth has now gone public with her concerns – and rightly so.

The Jewish Labour Movement has played a seminal role in the life of Labour and supported it through thick and thin for 99 years.

The Jewish community has provided Labour with some of its most distinguished MPs and vast number of councillors. Together they have given their all for the party and the wider labour movement.

Yet at its meeting last Wednesday the Jewish Labour Movement was forced to hold an indicative vote on whether to continue supporting the party.

I am pleased to say that only about 10 per cent of those attending in London voted to end our work with Labour. But this decision was taken with two provisos.

We will only support Labour representatives who are prepared to make explicit their opposition to anti-Semitism in all its forms and, secondly, to revisit this question formally when the movement meets at its annual conference in April.

The statement by Holborn & St Pancras is a vital assurance to our Jewish community that whatever might happen in the rest of the Labour Party we, in our constituency, are clear about where we stand.

With this in mind, and given the unequivocal positions of Sir Keir Starmer MP and Camden Council leader Georgia Gould on this issue, I will remain in the party and continue to give it my support, as I have for over 40 years.

MARTIN PLAUT
NW5