Tackling the “delegitimisation and demonisation” of Israel is explicitly linked to the fight against antisemitism in Britain, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) has argued.
Mark Sewards MP, who represents Leeds South West and Morley, was speaking at the LFI reception at the Labour Party’s annual conference on Tuesday night.
During his address, he made reference to two sombre anniversaries in the next few days, namely “the third anniversary of the terrible events of October 7 2023, the Hamas-led pogrom, which precipitated the tragic conflict in Gaza” and “the first anniversary of the Heaton Park synagogue attack, a horrific event which still scars Jewish communities up and down the United Kingdom”.
Sewards lamented that the attack in Manchester “was just one of 3,700 antisemitic incidents recorded last year by our friends at the CST [Community Security Trust], the second worst annual record”.
He continued to highlight antisemitic attacks in the first half of this year, including “the Iranian-backed attacks on synagogues, charities, communal institutions” which, he said, “offer worrying confirmation that the October 7 attacks triggered a long-term rise in antisemitism right here at home, with levels far exceeding those we witnessed prior to Hamas's murderous attack on southern Israel”.
The Labour MP, first elected in 2024, continued: “Friends, we have to face a very simple truth: we will never be able to confront and defeat anti-Jewish racism in this country until we challenge the demonisation and delegitimisation of the world's only Jewish state and its people. Those who deny the Jewish people – and only the Jewish people – the right to self-determination, who call to globalise the Intifada and obsessively suggest that Israel is uniquely evil in the world.
“They are the reason that Jewish schoolchildren cannot wear their school uniforms on buses in the UK.
“Now we know that Jewish students are harassed and intimidated on campuses, and we know this because of the stellar work carried out by UJS [Union of Jewish Students]. We also know that Jewish places of worship are surrounded by rings of steel and security in Britain in 2026.
He described the situation as a “national security emergency” and paid tribute to Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The LFI reception, more sparsely attended than in previous years, also heard a video message from Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats in Israel, and from Emily Moatti, a candidate in Golan’s party.
Golan expressed thanks to LFI for “standing with us here in Israel”.
Sewards wished them success and expressed a desire for “a government in Israel which will end the abhorrent violence perpetrated by extremist settlers” and which would “no longer be besmirched by the presence of the far right in [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich”.
And he said that, in spite of difficult circumstances both nationally and internationally, LFI would “continue to make the progressive case for Israel, the progressive case for Zionism, the case for the two-state solution”.
Unlike the two previous LFI receptions since Labour entered government, there was not a single cabinet minister present, nor did any representative from Israel’s embassy in the UK.
Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, who used his keynote speech on Monday to defend the government’s more robust approach to Israel, was reportedly called away from conference, meaning he could not attend.
He did, however, attend an event on Monday organised by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.
Instead, Stephen Doughty, the Middle East minister, represented the government at the LFI reception and defended the government’s decision to impose sanctions on West Bank settlements.
However, he thanked those who disagreed with the decision for their “honest, candid, constructive engagement”.
Doughty also went on to say that the government would not accept “the delegitimisation of Israel” and expressed opposition to the BDS movement.
He continued: “I want to remind you all that our quarrel is with this Israeli government and the actions of its ministers, not with Israel, not with Israelis, and never with the Jewish people.”
The reception also heard from Matthew McGregor, the prime minister’s director of political strategy, who said that Andy Burnham had asked him to “come this evening to express our solidarity with you”.
He shared that before starting to work for Number 10 he had visited the Nova Festival exhibition, which gave him “a small glance into the experience the victims of terrorism have.
McGregor continued: “We stand against terrorism, and we stand for peace, and we stand with the community here, not just because it is our policy, and not just because in our actions we hope to express that solidarity, but because it is in our values.”
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