Election 2015: Why British Jews will welcome Tory win

Labour’s Sarah Sackman had at one stage been a point ahead of Tory incumbent Mike Freer in Margaret Thatcher’s old seat. Yet she finished 5,662 votes behind, barely any better than her predecessor had five years ago.

Andrew Dismore, the former Labour MP in Hendon, had been confident of returning to the Commons’ green benches this month. But he saw Matthew Offord romp away to extend a 106 majority to nearer 4,000.

Big Tory wins in three of the biggest Jewish constituencies. Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe it was really all down to the mansion tax and the economy?

But all the evidence points to the toxicity factor that I wrote about last month. Almost every Jewish voter I spoke to reeled at the thought of Miliband as Prime Minister. Most of the expletive-laden comments offered when his name was mentioned cannot even be repeated here.

Miliband himself told me 10 days ago that it didn’t matter – some people would agree with him, some would not. Arch cynics would say his anti-Israel position came with the belief it would play well in constituencies with large Muslim populations and would secure backing from vehement anti-Israel backbenchers.

But now it is the man who wanted to be the country’s first Jewish Prime Minister who finds himself cast into the political wilderness.

Who fared better? Not the Liberal Democrats’ most senior female, Jewish minister. Lynne Featherstone was beaten so heavily in Hornsey and Wood Green that the gigantic swing to Labour reads like something from a political fantasy.

Her political career is over, like so many of her colleagues in the upper echelons of the party.

Few in the Jewish community will mourn the departure of Vince Cable, the man who fought to impose an arms embargo on Israel at the height of the Gaza conflict.

The party’s now ex-leader, Nick Clegg, often made the right noises towards British Jews, but his failure to deal properly with the party’s controversial backbencher, David Ward, will be long remembered. It finished the Lib Dems as a potential vote for almost the entire Jewish population of Britain.

There will be wry smiles on the faces of those who found Mr Ward’s comments about Jews and Israel abhorrent when they sit back and admire his hammering in Bradford East. Another big mouth consigned to the dustbin of history.

The situation in Scotland, where so many Labour Friends of Israel – Jim Murphy, Anne McGuire, Michael McCann – are now gone, replaced by the SNP, will be deeply worrying to many Jews north of the border.

Weeks and months of patient consideration will be needed if any sort of working relationship is to succeed between the community and Nicola Sturgeon’s party.

Who can expect to benefit most in personal terms from today’s results? Luciana Berger, who was already a rising star in the Labour shadow cabinet, should be handed a big position when the party selects a new leader.

It is hard not to feel enormously sorry for defeated Tory Lee Scott, a man who never shirked from defending Jews, even when it meant his personal safety was threatened in his Ilford North seat. It would be to the community’s benefit if he returns to a role in a Jewish organisation, similar to that which he held before entering Parliament.

Robert Halfon, the buccaneering Tory campaigner, deserves a bigger role than his previous job working under George Osborne in the Treasury.

David Cameron’s former deputy chief of staff, Oliver Dowden, will be a useful ally for the community in Hertsmere. Already a strong supporter of Israel, he can be expected to bend the Prime Minister’s ear further still.

But that brings us to the final and arguably most important point. The strength of David Cameron’s relationship with Anglo-Jewry means the majority of the community will be celebrating around their Shabbat dinner tables this weekend.

A month ago, 69 per cent of British Jews said they would support the Tories. Two-thirds preferred Mr Cameron’s approach to that of Mr Miliband.

“More of the same” is rarely a political position that attracts people. But if our community enjoys another five years of the warmest possible relations with the Prime Minister, then few will complain.