Keir Starmer was immediate in his condemnation of the Hamas attacks on Israel. He has been praised by the Jewish community for working to tackle antisemitism within Labour. And he has spoken of his personal commitment to turning around Labour’s reputation with British Jews, having a Jewish wife and observing some Jewish traditions as a family.
But the assault on Israel by Hamas and the counter-bombardment of Gaza has already been seized on by some Conservatives as part of an attempt to associate the party with the era of the former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was accused by some of failing to deal adequately with antisemitism in Labour.
Corbyn is no longer a Labour MP and he will not be allowed to stand for the party in 2024. However, the Tories are still seeking to link him to Starmer, who served in his shadow cabinet.
Corbyn called on Saturday for an “immediate ceasefire and deescalation”, later saying “obviously all attacks are wrong”, but he was challenged by Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, for not condemning Hamas specifically.
The Telegraph ran a piece saying: “Has Labour truly recovered from antisemitism?” while the Tory chair, Greg Hands, called for the whip to be removed from a backbencher, Apsana Begum, for tweeting support for the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, a well-known pro-Palestine group that is on the fringe at the Labour conference and is due to hold a protest outside the Israeli embassy.
Starmer would no doubt rather be talking about a million other things than Corbyn’s views on Hamas or the history of antisemitism in Labour, with his key announcements knocked off the top of the broadcast bulletins as a result of the grim international news.
But he will be judged by how he handles the party’s response to difficult events, and so far Labour appears to be just about navigating the situation.
The party is very much alive to the risk of controversial statements being made on the fringes of conference and has indicated it is prepared to take action against any hint of antisemitism. At the same time, it is conscious of the long history within Labour of support for Palestinians suffering in Gaza as a result of the Israeli government.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said the “terrorism” experienced by Israel “must end” while also asking Israel to ensure its counteroffensive against Hamas in Palestine was proportionate and within the boundaries of international law.
He said that while an operation had been launched by Israel to recover hostages taken by Hamas, “none of us want to see increased bloodshed on both sides”.
He also said it had been an “appalling year” for loss of life among Palestinian civilians, and said whatever retaliatory action Israel took should be “proportionate and within international law”.
The party’s readiness to stamp out antisemitism has not been tested by any major incident at the conference but there are still some calls for the party to go further in distancing itself from some groups.
Louise Ellman, a former MP who left Labour in 2019 during the leadership of Corbyn and rejoined when Starmer became leader, said there should be no tolerance for groups who – even at the Labour conference – are supporting the idea that there should be no state of Israel.
At a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) fringe event on Monday, she said a two-state solution was still “the only way forward” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and said a future Labour government must support that solution, but she said there should be no tolerance for Hamas, which did not accept Israel’s right to exist and had a hatred of Jews written into its charter.
She added: “There should be absolutely no tolerance for groups who, even at this very moment and even at this conference, are supporting the idea that there should be no state of Israel. Let’s not forget that is the background to this and it has to be addressed as well.”
Ellman, who is Jewish, said she did have faith in Starmer, though. “He is determined that the party does not go backwards and has given very firm and equivocal response to the crisis,” she said.
