Most Jews concerned UK no longer safe, says Lord Sacks
THE majority of Jews are questioning whether Britain is a safe place to bring up their children in the wake of the Labour antiSemitism controversy, former chief rabbi Lord Sacks has said.
The crossbench peer insisted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn must “recant and repent” over remarks regarding Zionism which he claimed risked engulfing the UK “in the flames of hatred”. He told BBC1’s
“Jews have been in Britain since 1656, I know of no other occasion in these 362 years when Jews – the majority of our community – are asking ‘is this country safe to bring up our children?’
“Now, this is very, very worrying.
“Anyone who uses the term Zionist loosely, without great care, is in danger of engulfing Britain in the kind of flames of hatred that have reappeared throughout Europe, and is massively irresponsible.
“There is danger that Jeremy Corbyn may one day be prime minister. He is the leader of Her Majesty’s opposition, and I’m afraid that until he expresses clear remorse for what he has said and what his party has done to its Jewish sympathisers as well as its Jewish MPs, then he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was.”
Lord Sacks said Jewish people were thinking about leaving the UK because of the current atmosphere.
He said: “When people hear the kind of language that has been coming out of Labour, that’s been brought to the surface among Jeremy Corbyn’s earlier speeches, they cannot but feel an existential threat.”
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said comparing Mr Corbyn and Enoch Powell was “just wrong”, telling the BBC: “Jeremy has made it absolutely clear we will protect Jewish members of our party from any form of abuse and anti-Semitism.
“I just say to Lord Sacks ‘you’ve got it wrong, come and talk to us’.”
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the Labour Party to “unanimously, unequivocally and immediately” adopt the internationally agreed definition of anti-Semitism.
Mr Brown made the plea ahead of a meeting this week of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee on whether to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance declaration.
He said it was not simply about a change in policy but was “about the soul of the Labour Party”. MEMBERS of the public are being priced out of standing for Parliament by the “huge personal cost” of being a party candidate, a political journalist has claimed.
A survey of candidates found that the average personal cost was £11,118 for all seats.
The study asked more than 500 candidates from all parties in the 2015 election to detail their personal spending in standing.
Personal costs included loss of earnings from having to leave a job or reduce working hours to campaign, travelling around a constituency and attending local events.
It also found that the financial costs were higher for candidates fighting in marginal seats.
Conservative candidates who won in a marginal seat said they spent an average of £121,467, while those who lost their election fight spent £18,701.
For Labour, the average cost of winning a marginal was said to be £19,022, and £35,843 for those who lost. Lib Dems said the average cost to stand was £26,608 and for SNP candidates it was £9,700.
The findings will be published in a book by Isabel Hardman, of