Keir Starmer’s raison d’etre hangs on the idea that he has fundamentally changed Labour from being the party it was under Jeremy Corbyn. Making that clear has taken several forms: junking his Corbyn-lite leadership manifesto, centralising control of candidate selections, repudiating tax rises, praising Margeret Thatcher, cosying up to business, and even kicking his predecessor out of the party.
Starmer suspended Corbyn back in 2020. He had suggested allegations of antisemitism in Labour had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents” in response to the EHRC report critical of his handling of complaints. Despite Labour’s National Executive Committee ruling Corbyn should be reinstated, Starmer has refused to readmit him as an MP or candidate as a sign that his party is under new management. This isn’t Magic Grandpa’s Labour anymore.
With some stiff competition, the stench of antisemitism that hung around Labour under Corbyn’s leadership was the bleakest period of recent political history. For 40 per cent of British Jews to be considering leaving their country if Corbyn entered Number 10, for the Jewish Labour Movement to describe their own party as a “welcoming refuge for antisemites”, and for Jewish Labour MPs to quit in disgust was tragic and appalling.
Voters of all parties and none should be cheering on Starmer’s efforts to rid his party of this cancer. Undoubtedly, he has had some victories. Aside from Corbyn’s very public expulsion, the return of both Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger – Jewish ex-MPs who had quit over Corbyn’s leadership – and Starmer’s public backing of Israel in the immediate aftermath of October 7th were signs that this was a party under new leadership.
Yet whilst I don’t doubt Starmer’s efforts to tackle antisemitism are wholly sincere, this week’s tergiversations over Azhar Ali’s claims about Israel, October 7th, and Jews in the media have made clear that any hope that a change of leadership has done away with Labour’s antisemitism problem forever was woefully naive. It has become clearer that the poison runs deeper than many have hoped.
Why does the left have a problem with antisemitism? Daniel Finkelstein was right to suggest it has two major sources. The first is derived from Lenin, popular on the crank student left. It views imperialism as the final stage of capitalism, which makes any entity claiming to be resisting ‘imperialism’ an ally, and for whom Israel has become public enemy number one. Yet there is another, less ideological reason, why Labour figures might embark on the winding road that leads from criticising Israel to positing conspiracy theories to open prejudice: the increasing importance of Muslim voters.
One can be critical of Tel Aviv’s foreign policy while loathing antisemitism. I despise antisemitism with every fibre of my being yet cannot look at the situation in Gaza without anything other than a growing sense of alarm. It’s also the case that the vast majority of British Muslims are not antisemitic, and are more bothered about the economy, NHS, and other everyday voter issues than the Gaza crisis. Yet even if opposition to Israel and antisemitism are not the same thing, the former can tip into the latter. Polling suggests a correlation between strong anti-Israel views and antisemitic views.
Again, my concerns are with a small, vocal, and growing minority. British Muslims are more likely to believe antisemitic tropes or conspiracy theories than the rest of the population. Antisemitism in Britain is at its highest levels on record, and it has become substantially worse since October 7th. Many British Muslims will feel deep sympathy with the people of Gaza without having to lapse into conspiracy theorising. But a vocal minority do. Politicians are confronted with a choice over how to react. Denouncing might cost you votes. Leaning into it might cost you your principles.
Who knows how sincere Ali was in the renunciation comments he made only five months ago? The fact that he is now, stripped of Labour’s backing, running on a platform of standing up for Gaza against Starmer suggests his apology may not have been wholly genuine. Even if it was, it shows that he realises its electoral potency is greater than any principle involved. Evidence suggests he is a longstanding opponent of antisemitism. But addressing an audience of prominent Muslims, he told them what he believed they wanted to hear, even at the expense of peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories.
That Labour dragged its feat in removing its backing from him – and sent Shadow Cabinet ministers to campaign with or defend him once his comments had emerged – shows Starmer is concerned about alienating voters for whom Ali’s comments were either harmless, or a plus. A quarter of votes in Rochdale are Muslims; more than four-fifths of Muslim voters will treat the major parties’ stance on Gaza as crucial to their vote at the next election.
If either George Galloway or Ali win the by-election on a platform explicitly opposing the Labour leadership’s stance on Israel, Starmer will face pressure to further soften his support for Israel. 56 MPs defied his leadership over calls for an immediate ceasefire the last time the issue was voted on in the Commons. The SNP are bringing a similar motion again. Labour’s position becomes fudgier with every casualty in Gaza, and every new poll suggesting they are hemorrhaging Muslim votes.
MPs rebelling against Starmer’s line on Israel are predominantly concentrated in the constituencies with the highest Muslim populations. Currently, these are seats with substantial Labour majorities. There are millions more Conservative 2019 voters that Starmer needs to appeal to than British Muslims. His stance on Israel plays well with them. Alienating a vocal minority of Muslim voters is very unlikely to cost Starmer the election. But what should Wes Streeting do when posters in his constituency – 27.3 per cent Muslim – accuse Labour of assisting genocide in a campaign to unseat him?
Yet Britain’s Muslim population is young and rapidly growing. The Muslim share of Britain’s population is set to rise from around 6 per cent in 2016 to almost 18 per cent in 2050. Just as Israel’s current actions will have further radicalised a generation of Palestinian youth, many young British Muslims will look in horror at Starmer’s perceived unwillingness to stand up for Gaza. Again, hostility to Israel does not automatically make one an antisemitic in the usual understanding of the term. But it can begin one down a path that leads first to Ali’s conspiracy theorising, and then towards the socialism of fools.
Protecting their seats from future Galloways will force Labour candidates and MPs to confront these opinions within vocal minorities of their electorates. There are 14 times as many Muslims as Jews in Britain. In 2019, almost 80 per cent of Muslims voted for Labour. But their support isn’t a given: in 2010 a majority voted Liberal Democrat in response to New Labour’s invasion of Iraq and anti-terrorism measures. If Galloway is elected in Rochdale, Labour MPs worried about their constituencies will be more concerned than ever before.
How long until Starmer is demanding an immediate ceasefire, now that Scottish Labour have voted to back one? How long until another Labour MP or candidate is suspended for saying something appalling? Neither, again, is a sign of antisemitism, even if construed as such. But both would be a sign of the direction of travel. Perhaps the most shocking thing for Labour under Corbyn was the number of moderate MPs who could stand by whilst the evidence of antisemitism stacked up. Their anti-Toryism was greater than their revulsion at the mud through which their leader was allowing their party to be dragged.
What will they put up with now? Where will they draw the line? This might not be Corbyn’s Labour anymore. But that doesn’t mean the problem of history’s oldest hatred has gone away.