Join JLM to vote for next Labour leader, Ruth Smeeth urges
V FORMER LABOUR MP Ruth Smeeth has called for supporters of the party within the community to join the Jewish Labour Movement and cast a vote in the forthcoming leadership contest.
Writing in the JC, Ms Smeeth — who lost the Stoke on Trent North seat in last month’s election — also argues that Jeremy Corbyn’s replacement must not be someone from the current Shadow Cabinet.
Declaring the outcome of the contest as “vital for the community”, the 40-year-old ex-parliamentarian writes: “You can sit back and let the horror of anti-Jewish hate continue to pervade the Labour Party or you can join the JLM and get a vote for the next leader. I beg you to do the latter.”
Suggesting “no currently serving member of the Shadow Cabinet deserves our vote”, Ms Smeeth adds that Mr Corbyn’s successor “has to be one of the backbenchers likely to stand who have stood by us, whether that’s Jess
Phillips, Lisa Nandy, Dan Jarvis or Yvette Cooper. They have all shown leadership on racism when others were cowards.”
In a Sunday Times article, Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, said Mr Corbyn’s defeat had provided an “extraordinary relief” for the vast majority of British Jews. But he set out five tests for the new Labour leader to show they were serious about tackling anti-Jewish racism, including apologising for Baroness Chakrabarti’s failed report into the issue, installing an independent complaints process and adopting a zerotolerance approach to antisemitism.
V I TRULY believe that God puts you where you need to be, to have the battles that need to be had, and to be a voice for those people who need it.
That’s why I got involved in politics — to fight injustice and for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. It would be fair to say that over the last four years I could have lived without some of the battles — but I wouldn’t walk away then and I won’t do so now, because we still need to win.
When I got elected in 2015 I wanted to focus on child food poverty, ceramics (I did represent the potteries after all) and national security — with a little bit of community cohesion work thrown in for good measure.
Little did any of us realise that within four months, Jeremy Corbyn would be elected as the leader of the party and that our community was about to become a pawn in a political and cultural war that would come to dominate British politics and help electorally decimate the political party which had traditionally been home to so many of us.
My biggest fear after all the horror, after the abuse, the attacks, the stunts and the threats, is that it will take us a generation to ensure that antisemitism is no longer part of mainstream political discourse.
So what do we need to do, now, to start fixing this?
The first issue is the leadership. The next leader can either make zero tolerance of antisemitism within our own ranks an immediate priority or they can continue to empower racists.
Which means the outcome of this election is vital for the community. You can sit back and let the horror of anti-Jewish hate continue to pervade the Labour Party or you can join the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) and get a vote for the next leader. I beg you to do the latter.
Which leads us to the second issue — who should the next leader be?
I am clear: at times the fight against antisemitism within the Labour Party has been lonely. I have been subjected to too many platitudes from other MPs who have wanted to show solidarity in private but have been silent in public. Too many leaders-in-waiting were prepared to speak out if it was politically convenient, not because it was the right thing to do.
So unless the next leader has a record of publicly attacking racism in the party, demanding expulsions, standing by the whistleblowers and supporting JLM as the sole Jewish affiliate then they will not get my vote and nor should they get your support.
That means that no currently serving member of the Shadow Cabinet deserves our vote.
They have been timid when we needed strength. They have allowed racism in the Labour Party to be so normalised that the party of Manny Shinwell and Leo Abse is being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutionalised antisemitism.
Their silence at a time of crisis was indifference to our pain. Their calculated gamble was that it was better to be seen to serve with Mr Corbyn that be seen to challenge Mr Corbyn.
For me, therefore, expunging anti-Jewish hate from our politics must mean that the next leader of the Labour Party has to be one of the backbenchers who have stood by us, whether that’s Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy, Dan Jarvis or Yvette Cooper. They have all shown leadership on racism when others were cowards.
What I can promise you is that although I may no longer be an MP, this is not a fight I will be walking away from. But I’m going to need your help to fix it.