No excuse for anti-semitism, May tells Jewish community

THERESA MAY has said she has been “sickened” by the fact that Jewish people are “fearful of the future” and warned that “you cannot claim to be tackling racism if you are not tackling anti-semitism”.

The Prime Minister said there were “no excuses for any kind of hatred towards the Jewish people” in her first comments after the row about antisemitism which has dogged Labour all summer.

Mrs May told the United Jewish Israel Appeal dinner in London last night that “in the face of any kind of hatred against the Jewish people … I say with that same defiance: ‘Je suis Juif ’.”

Mrs May said she will stand “with our Jewish community by rooting out the scourge of anti-semitism here in our own country – just as I will stand with every community in Britain to fight racial and religious hatred in any form”.

In comments that will sting Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, she said: “Let me be clear: you cannot claim to be tackling racism if you are not tackling anti-semitism”.

The row over the failure of Mr Corbyn’s party to adopt in full the international definition of anti-semitism dominated the political agenda over the summer.

Mrs May said the UK Government had adopted the definition because it meant that “no one can plead ignorance or hide behind any kind of excuse”.

She said: “One of the things we need to do is give young Jewish people the confidence to be proud of their identity – as British, Jewish and Zionist too. There is no contradiction between these identities – and we must never let anyone try to suggest there should be.”

She continued: “Criticising the government of Israel is never – and can never be – an excuse for hatred against the Jewish people”.

“No excuses means no excuses. And we will not stop at calling out those who spread this hatred.”