1 min read
ByMartin Bright, Martin Bright
As I said in the comment pages of the JC this week, the Jewish vote is as diverse as the people that make it up.
That said, there is no doubt that this election will have been of huge interest to individual Jewish voters.
There are certain constituencies where the decisions of the Jewish community will have had a direct effect on the result. This is certainly true in Renfrewshire East, where Labour’s Jim Murphy, a hugely popular figure with the local Jewish community, was returned with an increased share of the vote.
In Hendon, Andrew Dismore, a great champion of his Jewish constituents, also nearly bucked the national trend. His Tory successor, Matthew Offord, could do worse than following the example of a fine parliamentarian.
Meanwhile, Jewish voters in Harrow East will have had a hand in unseating Tony McNulty, but not because of any perceived hostility towards the community from the former Home Office minister.
Elsewhere, this has been a very positive election. Luciana Berger stormed home in Liverpool Wavertree despite a brutal campaign against her from some within her own party, who criticised her firm pro-Zionist stance as director of Labour Friends of Israel.
The campaign by the virulently anti-Zionist Muslim Public Affairs Committee exposed by the Jewish Chronicle this week also seems to have failed.
Former immigration minister Phil Woolas survived in Oldham East and Saddleworth despite a targeted campaign to unseat him. Other targets such as Denis MacShane, Mike Gapes and Khalid Mahmood were untouched by MPAC campaigns of vilification.
But the most heart-warming story of the night was the definitive routing of the BNP by Margaret Hodge and Jon Cruddas. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Hope Not Hate campaign.
Equally satisfying is the demise of Respect, who lost out to Labour’s Rushanara Ali in Bethnal Green and Bow, Jim Fitzpatrick in Poplar and Limehouse and Roger Godsiff in Birmingham Hall Green.
The result nationally may be uncertain, but one thing is clear: Islamists and fascists had a very bad election.