JLM votes to stay aöliated to Labour for one month

THE JEWISH Labour Movement voted to remain affiliated with the Labour Party for at least another month at the end of an impassioned meeting on Wednesday night.

Around 250 members of the group met at London’s Western Marble Arch Synagogue to debate whether to break away over the party’s handling of antisemitism among the membership.

An indicative show of hands suggested around 80 per cent of members supported the motion to remain affiliated to Labour.

But the vote was only informal. JLM members will hold a binding vote at its annual general meeting next month on whether the group should end its 99-year association with the Labour Party.

Dame Margaret Hodge, MP for Barking, was among those speaking. “We’ve all been fighting the growing cancer of antisemitism, it sometimes feels very lonely,” she said. “I can’t tell you how much it has meant to have the JLM behind us. I fought the fascists on the right, I will fight the fascists on the left.”

Dame Louise Ellman, Ruth Smeeth, Ian Austin and Wes Streeting were also present.

JLM vice chairman Mike Katz said it “feels like an existential moment for the Jewish Labour Movement”, which has been affiliated to the Labour Party since 1920.