Party’s ‘heartfelt’ apology to Scots Jews
LABOUR has offered a ‘heartfelt and meaningful apology’ to Scotland’s Jewish communities following the antisemitic shame of the Jeremy Corbyn era.
Ian Murray, the new Shadow Scottish Secretary and Labour’s only MP north of the Border, has written to Jewish leaders to say the need to make amends was ‘the moral issue of our time in the party’.
Mr Corbyn’s leadership was marred by repeated antisemitism scandals and his own reluctance to apologise and take action.
It led to an unprecedented intervention by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis only days before December’s general election, warning that the Jewish community was ‘gripped with anxiety’ at the thought of Mr Corbyn in power. In Scotland, Jewish groups said they feared an SNP-Labour pact would hand him the keys to Downing Street.
Since taking over last month as Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer has issued a full apology and promised to rid the party of antisemitism.
This is echoed in the letter sent from Mr Murray to leaders of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities.
He wrote: ‘As you will know, since we last met in March, the Labour Party has elected a new leader. I’m proud to have been appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet.
‘Keir has made clear since being elected that rebuilding the Jewish community’s trust in the Labour Party will be one of his top priorities.
‘The same is true for me as I approach my new role. I offer a heartfelt and meaningful apology for the appalling way the Labour Party has treated the Jewish community.
‘Never again do I want any Jewish person to feel they do not have a home in the Labour Party, that they can’t trust us to do the right thing, or feel our party would make the country a more dangerous place for them.
‘This is the moral issue of our time in the party.’