Sir Michael Ellis talking at the JC event[Missing Credit]
David Toube, general counsel for the Jewish Leadership Council, who appeared at the panel discussion alongside Ellis, said: “It is the most flabbergasting thing that the CPS has no way of telling how well it is doing in prosecuting [antisemitic crimes] because it's [only] got a category called ‘religious hate crime’ on the computer and the computer can't be reprogrammed and no new category can be added ... So, we just do not know."
Ellis also argued the CPS should have a dedicated unit focused on tackling antisemitism, noting it has such a unit for wildlife, rural and heritage crimes.
"So,” he said, “why not have a dedicated unit [for antisemitism] – a unit which has specialist prosecutors... who [know what to look for] and are not biased?”
Despite having served briefly as the government's chief legal adviser under Liz Truss’s short tenure in 2022, Ellis admitted even he could not explain why some alleged perpetrators of crimes that were seemingly antisemitic in nature had not been prosecuted in recent years.
Joani Reid MP in conversation at JC event[Missing Credit]
“We are seeing the CPS fail to prosecute when they could do so," he claimed.
Addressing whether there is enough political will to stand up for the country’s Jewish community and adequately tackle antisemitism, Ellis pointed to the fact that the UK’s Jewish population is so small.
"It is to do with numbers. That is [one of] the root causes of the political problems,” he said.
“The Jewish community is tiny in comparison to other communities [amounting to] 0.2 per cent of the population. The votes are not there to attract political attention.”
Joining Ellis and Toube on the panel hosted by JC political correspondent Lorin Bell-Cross was Joani Reid, the Labour MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, and lawyer Mark Lewis.
Reid has been vocal about her condemnation of West Midlands Police (WMP) in the wake of the Maccabi fan ban scandal, which saw supporters of the Israeli side prevented from attending a match against Aston Villa in Birmingham last November.
She told the audience that WMP also need to refine the way they deal with crimes involving alleged antisemitism.
“This is such a huge problem,” the MP said. “The WMP just put anyone that's a minority into a group together and say that's ‘religious hatred’”.
Asked what the force is doing to combat such crimes, they simply cite their diversity and inclusion programmes, she claimed, adding: “They don’t really understand it.”
Commenting on how WMP dealt with the controversy surrounding the Villa Park stadium ban, Reid said there is a sense of “utter shame” among communities at the decisions the force made.
Lewis, who has for years worked to combat antisemitism in the UK, claimed the House of Commons “has antisemites in it”, and they are “part of the problem”
“How are we going to stop that? He asked. “We are probably not going to be able to.”
Striking a pessimistic note, he added: "Jews do have a problem here and... I think we are facing a lost battle. It is not going to stop."
Turning his attention to the shul in which he was speaking, and the security outside, he said Jews do not want to "build bigger walls". Instead, they want to live in a country where “no walls” are needed.
The CPS was contacted for comment.
