He may have only 500 Jews, but he's one of Israel's biggest defenders - The Jewish Chronicle

With a local Jewish community numbering little more than 500, Southport MP Damien Moore could spend his time amongst far more electorally important sections of his local constituency.

After first being elected to represent the Merseyside seaside town last year, the Conservative MP has already won over a large section of Southport’s Jews with his commitment to understand their concerns – as well as his staunch defence of the state of Israel in a series of interventions during heated Westminster debates.

Speaking to the JC from his Commons office, on a day of further uncertainty over his government’s ability to negotiate a Brexit deal, Mr Moore seems rather relieved to be talking about the roots of his admiration for both the community and the Jewish state.

“As a kid I read a lot of history and thought a lot about how decisions get made,” said the first Tory MP in Southport since 1992.

“Becoming a Tory was something completely natural to me – it stemmed from what I read.

“In the same way I came to join the Conservatives, I also read quite a lot about the Middle East – and Israel’s conflict with the other states in the region.

“The more you read, the more you recognise that the newspapers can portray a very one-sided account of what is actually going on.

“Israel is the only democratic state in the region – it is easy to forget this when you absorb some of what is written about the country.”

But Mr Moore, who was born in Workington, Cumberland, has also spent time leaning from his local constituents on what issues are of particular concern to the small number of Southport Jews, as well as visiting the beautiful Southport Hebrew Congregation Arnside Road synagogue to help celebrate its 125 anniversary alongside Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

“I wanted to listen and learn from what I heard back from the Jewish community locally,” explained Mr Moore. “I found much to admire in the sense of fairness, the togetherness of the community.

“There were values there that instantly chimed with my own.

“It was an honour to invited to Arnside Road synagogue back in June as well. I felt very comfortable being among the community on such an historic occasion.”

Mr Moore’s link to the wider Jewish community was strengthened earlier this year after a meeting with the Jewish Leadership Council’s north west external affairs manager Marc Levy, in which the MP expressed an interest in seeing how issues such as mental health and social care were dealt with.

It is also served as a perfect example of how the JLC’s regional structure could work for the benefit of both the community and for politicians outside the Westminster bubble.

The energetic MP, who took his seat with a 7.6 per cent swing from the Lib Dems at the last general election, next requested to travel down to Golders Green, north west London, with Mr Levy to view the innovative Head Room Café , set up by the Jewish mental health charity Jami UK, and the local flagship Jewish Care home.

“With both the Head Room Café and in the care home I visited you saw cleat attempts to deal with issues such as mental health and social care in a way that puts the comfort of those using the services first,” reasoned the parliamentarian.

“Going into the Jewish Care home it felt you were inside somewhere that felt like a good, comfortable and clean place to be residing within.

“The initiative with the café – the idea that this was somewhere you could come if you just wanted good food, but also somewhere you could go to talk to experts if you had issues of a mental health nature - is a spectacularly good one.

“Both in social care and in mental health these are ideas that I would not hesitate to discuss with government as initiatives that could be rolled out nationally.”

But away from his attempts to learn from the community, Mr Moore is proud of his interventions in the heat of often one-side debates on Israel in Westminster.

During a Westminster Hall debate on the humanitarian situation in Gaza initiated by Labour, Mr Moore shone with his suggestion that "Whereas the Palestinian Authority want to create a lasting peace, the regime that controls Gaza wants to wage war against the Jewish people. Such hatred informs its decisions, which worsen the lives of ordinary Gazans.

“Even more worrying is the antisemitism of Hamas. If we want to understand the humanitarian situation in Gaza, we need to appreciate the importance of the hatred that drives Hamas to launch bombs attached to balloons in the direction of innocent children."

Reflecting on his decision to speak up for Israel in several such debates over the past year Mr Moore told the JC: "I just want to stand up for what I believe the right thing.

“You can only feel sorry for Labour MPs such as Dame Louise Ellman who have to fight a very lonely fight on occasions against the one-side bias of her own party.

“Fortunately I can rely on rather better support from colleagues on my own side.”