LIMMUD 2019

EMILY THORNBERRY has categorically ruled out the possibility of a Labour government cutting funding for the security of Jewish institutions in Britain, saying that ideas to the contrary were the result of “a major misunderstanding”.

Speaking at the Limmud Festival, the Shadow Foreign Secretary told the audience there was “no way Labour would cut funding”.

In a September interview, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had been unclear when asked about whether Labour would maintain funding levels for the security of the Jewish community in Britain.

But Ms Thornberry said: “I’ve spoken to John McDonnell. This is a major misunderstanding. There is no way there will be any cuts to funding for the Community Security Trust (CST).”

Ms Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South, appeared at the Limmud event on Thursday in discussion with Jon Lansman, the leader of the farleft Momentum group and a member of the Labour party’s National ExecuJeremy,” tive Committee. Discussing antisemitism in the Labour Party, Ms Thornberry described how in part it was the result of “lazy undisciplined thinking” by people involved with Palestinian advocacy equating all Jews with events in Israel.

“It’s not Jews. It’s not even Israelis. It’s the Israeli government.”

But she also said there was a “farleft caricature” of capitalism that was “obscene” and revealed antisemitic attitudes, and that with the expansion of the party over the last few years, people who held such views had come in.

“The way things were dealt with last summer was shameful,” she said, in reference to Labour’s seeming inability to deal with the issue of antisemitism.

“It breaks my heart to see how we’ve lost trust with Jewish people… why should people trust us, given what’s happened?”

However, things grew more heated during the question-and-answer session towards the end of the discussion.

“There seems to be an elephant in the room, and that elephant’s name is said the first audience member to be called on.

The usually sedate Limmud audience registered its displeasure at some of the Shadow Foreign Secretary’s answers, particularly her statement that “I don’t believe there is a racist or antisemitic bone in his [Mr Corbyn’s] body.”

Similarly, her suggestion that Jeremy Corbyn had been unable to deal with the issue of Labour antisemitism properly because he had been so emotionally affected about having been accused of it himself, was met with derision from the crowd.

Jon Lansman told the audience that Labour had “revised our disciplinary process from start to finish.

“The old system wasn’t designed for this,” he said, adding that whereas prior to three years ago the disciplinary unit were having to deal with a few dozen cases a year, there were now hundreds of cases to deal with.

“I sat on [disciplinary review panels of] 100 cases this summer, 80 per cent of which were antisemitism-related.”

The way things were dealt with last summer was shameful’