News
I’ll respect you if you can’t vote Labour, Wes Streeting tells Jews
There was a heated debate between candidates at a hustings in the constituency of Ilford North
December 5, 2019 18:10
There was a heated debate between candidates at a hustings in the constituency of Ilford North
December 5, 2019 18:10Wes Streeting told Jewish voters that he would “respect” them if they felt unable to vote Labour, but cautioned against voting Conservative, branding it “not a morally neutral position, either”.
An Ilford North hustings last week, hosted by four communal bodies and catering for Jewish voters, was so ill-tempered that he had to rebuke the more vociferous elements of the crowd.
After a particularly hostile intervention, Mr Streeting said: “You can’t conduct hustings or democratic debate like this. I have seen enough of it in my own party, without seeing it in my own community.”
He faced a grilling on Labour’s record on antisemitism and, by a mostly anti-EU audience, on his opposition to the government’s Brexit policy.
He apologised to voters for “the pain my party has inflicted on our Jewish community”, saying the protracted row over antisemitism “is the thing I’m most morally offended by about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.” He said: “I am frustrated. I am angry… When the Chief Rabbi issued that statement, it brought a deeper level of shame upon me than I have previously experienced in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. And I thought we had hit rock-bottom.”
Mr Streeting, who is openly gay, then accused Tory challenger Howard Berlin of failing to call out racism and homophobia in the Conservative Party.
Receiving a round of applause from the anti-Labour crowd, he said: “I do not think that ‘watermelon smiles’ and ‘picaninnies’ is language which should be overlooked. I don’t think referring to gay people as ‘tank top bum-boys’ is something that should be overlooked.
“Let me tell you something else — Boris Johnson knew exactly what he was doing. Given the rise of hate crime in our country, given the rise of antisemitism, and given most people in this room will know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of hatred and discrimination, the lack of solidarity and support for other communities in this community, in this city and across the country is a disgrace.
“The only thing I’ve seen heartening in politics this week — and it had bugger all to do with the election — was when a Jewish family was being attacked on London transport. Who defended them? A Muslim woman in a hijab.
“If you’re condemning Jeremy Corbyn for failing to tackle antisemitism but you’re not standing with the Muslim community against Islamophobia, have a word with yourself! We’ve got to stand up for more than just ourselves — that’s what solidarity, community and our country is all about.”
He added: “I have made it clear where I stand on Jeremy Corbyn. I am nobody’s Yes Man. If you cannot vote for me at the next election because of my leader, I respect that.
“But before you cheerfully go into the voting lobbies voting for more of the same, I would think twice before voting Conservative. Because I say, certainly not from a moral high horse, voting Conservative is not a morally-neutral position, either.
“Ask the people who have been victims of their racist policies or their racist language. I’m sorry we’ve got two mainstream parties mired in controversy… but I have confronted and challenged mine, and I will always do that, whether you return me to Parliament or not.
“Tackling racism is about principle and conviction — it’s not about votes or politics.”
The majority of attendees, as they shuffled out of the Redbridge Jewish Community Centre and into the cold, said they will vote Conservative, despite recognising Mr Streeting’s personal integrity.
As is being reported up and down the country, for many Jews, antisemitism in Labour has made it unelectable — even if they support their local candidate and the party’s manifesto.
With Jews making up roughly seven per cent of his constituents, the loss of Jewish support is a blow for Mr Streeting. But with a majority of 10,000, he is nonetheless likely to retain his seat.
Although many in the room agreed with Mr Berlin’s accusations that Mr Streeting had betrayed them over Brexit, he received his largest cheer of the night when blaming London Mayor Sadiq Khan for the recent spike in knife crime in the capital.
Mark Johnson and David Reynolds, the Liberal Democrat and Green candidates, respectively, were in agreement with Mr Streeting in blaming Tory austerity and declining public services, instead.
But Mr Reynolds lobbed a grenade into the room when he — virtually without prompting — defended Mr Corbyn’s record on antisemitism, drawing boos and shouts of “Disgrace!”
He said: “[Mr Corbyn] has a long history of anti-racism campaigning. He was arrested for protesting against apartheid South Africa when Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party were still calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist.
“I have not myself seen evidence that persuades me that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite.”
Mr Johnson promised voters to “stop the Brexit chaos and build a brighter future”, pitching himself as the candidate between the extremes of Tory right-wing Euroscepticism and Labour’s “hard-left Marxist tendency”.
The Brexit Party’s Neil Anderson, meanwhile, resisted calls from the audience to step aside in order to give Mr Berlin a greater chance of victory.
