Andy Burnham has been accused of lacking “the courage” to reject the “appalling and baseless claim” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
In a speech to Conservative Friends of Israel’s annual lunch, shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy launched a blistering attack on the likely next prime minister and the Labour Party.
The Tory frontbencher attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s government’s record on Israel: “The Labour Party got rid of Jeremy Corbyn, but continued his policies toward Israel.
He continued: “Keir Starmer suspended export licences at a time of war, halted trade negotiations, restored funding for Unrwa, and reversed our position at the International Criminal Court. He recognised a Palestinian state while the hostages were still held in tunnels by Hamas.”
The MP for West Suffolk added that although Starmer would soon be gone, Burnham would likely be “no better”.
“When asked if Israel had committed a genocide … Andy Burnham said … ‘I can’t judge [that]’ … Well, I can. The war in Gaza was no genocide. To use that language is a deliberate and offensive provocation to Israel and to all Jews, a people who really did suffer that terrible crime against humanity.
“Those who make that appalling and baseless claim and those who lack the courage to reject it are cowards.”
The former special adviser to Theresa May, who led the campaign against West Midlands Police’s decision to ban fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from their side’s clash with Aston Villa last year, went on to say that the country was being torn apart by a failure to properly confront antisemitism, including among British Muslims.
He told the audience: “Polls show around half believe Jews have too much power over the government, four in ten say the same for the media and the City and only one in four believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish homeland.
“Our country’s failure to confront this extremism is the reason we face an antisemitism crisis today.”
Speaking of the scandal, first revealed by the JC, Timothy was scathing of the authorities in Britain’s second largest city, saying that the police found themselves “outsourcing their decisions to ‘community leaders’, making themselves the willing tools of antisemites and lying to Parliament about doing so”.
The Birmingham-born Aston Villa fan cautioned that the problems exposed in Birmingham were not limited to Britain’s second city: “From local councils to the most sensitive government departments, from the rape gangs to the Saturday marches, our institutions are being corrupted and the power of the state is being used to pursue ethnic, sectarian interests.
“And if we think this is only about Israel or only about Jews, we are deluding ourselves about that too. Because this intolerance, this hatred of others will come for all of us.
“The response cannot be to build ever-higher walls around synagogues and Jewish schools just as it cannot be to install ever-more concrete barriers around our most important national monuments.
“We must be unyielding before the threat, and we must be unashamed of standing up for our way of life.”
The packed reception included Conservative frontbenchers including shadow home secretary Chris Philp, shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho, shadow culture secretary Nigel Huddlestone, shadow communities secretary James Cleverly and shadow Scotland secretary Andrew Bowie. Former prime minister Theresa May was also present as was former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and MPs, including 1922 committee chairman Bob Blackman.
Jewish communal figures present included the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg and Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock CBE.
Kemi Badenoch, who introduced Timothy, also took aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
“Labour's approach to Israel has been to surrender difficult decisions rather than show moral leadership,” she said. She added: “Israel is our ally, our defence partner, our friend, but she is also a democracy on the front line of a wider struggle. Israel's fight against Islamist terrorism is not Israel's fight alone. It is a fight for the values that Britain and the wider West share: democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, but it shouldn't require courage to stand against antisemitism or to confront Islamist extremism, but increasingly it does.”
The crowd was also addressed by CFI’s honorary president Lord Polak, parliamentary chairs in the Commons and Lords, Greg Smith and Lord Polak, and chair of the board of directors Jeremy Brier KC.
Israel’s outgoing Charge D’affairs Daniela Grudsky Ekstein praised the Conservative Party’s support for Israel: “When the people of Israel look to the United Kingdom today, they know that we have a friend in the Conservative Party, and it is not an empty slogan, it is a feeling of acknowledgement, belonging, and partnership.”
She also made what appeared to be a dig at the Labour Party, saying that Israel had been “neglected by some for their own political reasons”. The Tories, she said, had “stood with us during these challenging times, it recognises Israel’s right to defend itself. You've condemned terrorism without equivocation, and you called anti-Zionism what it is: anti-Jewish hatred.”
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