I know how agonising it will have been for my dear friend and colleague Louise Ellman to decide to leave the Labour Party. I am devastated that she has had to do this and I am so sorry about everything she has had to go through.
Louise has been a member of the party for 55 years and has held public office over half a century.
As those of us lucky enough to know her can testify, Louise has never been a quitter. Only her genuine fear about the dire consequences of Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street – fears that many of us share – and the need to speak out about them will have led her to resign.
The hard left have fought a vicious battle against Louise in her constituency for the past four years. Any decent leadership of my party would have moved to suspend her constituency party and clear out the antisemites and bullies who dominate it. But these are, of course, the current leadership’s most loyal supporters and they will never move against them.
Shockingly, too, we’re no longer surprised to see women and Jewish party members – and Jewish women in particular – being targeted in this manner.
But Louise’s very many qualities seemed to provoke a special viciousness. She is a woman of principle but not of dogma. She is a practical politician interested in serving her constituents and improving their lives, not one of those toy-town revolutionaries who would rather spend hours in meetings harassing their MP, waging factional battles and engaging in theoretical ideological debates.
And let us be frank, the fact that she is Jewish seems to have fed the desire of these Trotskyists and militants to drive her out.
Throughout her time in Parliament, Louise has doggedly defended the State of Israel and its people. She has sought to raise the level of debate by talking about the complexities and challenges of the region and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. As someone who has been with her on visits to Ramallah for discussions with the Palestinian leadership, I know she has always acknowledged the need for a just solution for both peoples. And she has fought the vile spectre of antisemitic anti-Zionism which has come to dominate discussion in the Labour Party on Jeremy Corbyn’s watch.
As anyone who has followed those Parliamentary debates, as I have, knows Louise can always be relied upon to turn up and speak in the most difficult and challenging ones. With that quiet steely nature that so many of us admire, she’s always there making the case, never opting for the quiet, easy life or afraid to mount the barricades.
Louise has shown tremendous bravery and dignity. She has never descended to the level of her opponents, but she has never given them any ground. She is a profile in courage from whom many of us could learn so much.
That the Labour Party no longer has room in its ranks for a politician of Louise’s calibre and experience is a terrible indictment of our leadership. But perhaps the most telling aspect of Louise’s resignation were the attacks directed at her – including by some very senior individuals – in its wake. To react to the resignation of a Jewish MP in the manner that they did – questioning her motives and flatly denying her claims – simply proves her view that the party is indeed now manifesting all the signs of becoming institutionally antisemitic.
I’ve had the huge privilege to work with two extraordinarily principled women – Louise and Joan Ryan – over the past four years. We owe both a great debt of gratitude. I will continue to be proud to work with them and other right-minded colleagues to fight against the current rise of left-wing antisemitism in our party and the disgraceful efforts to demonise and delegitimise the state of Israel.
Baroness Ramsay is LFI chair in the House of Lords
