The glaring absence of his government on Sunday rather calls his commitment – and, yet again, his trustworthiness – into question
September 9, 2025 09:03
From the lack of coverage in the media, it was almost as if it had never happened. Sunday, up to 70,000 people marched through central London to demand action on antisemitism.
From a journalistic point of view, this was a fairly newsworthy story. It was what we call “man bites dog”; for years, our capital city has been dominated by pro-Palestinian rallies. Here we had the opposite. Yet the media silence underscored the reason for the march in the first place.
I was honoured with the opportunity to address the crowds at Parliament square. My main point was about the state of our politics.
Preceding me as speakers were Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, and Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary. Can you spot what was missing?
You got it: the Labour Party. In what could only be interpreted as a gesture of contempt, Keir Starmer snubbed the rally by failing to send a government representative to speak.
As I mentioned in my speech, this insult to Jews in their darkest hour called to mind a conversation I had had with the American journalist Bari Weiss that week for a new podcast with former Parachute Regiment officer Andrew Fox. In her episode, which will be released in a few weeks’ time, she argued that the West did not have a crisis of trust in politics. Instead, she said, we had a crisis of “trustworthiness”.
“You should not trust something that’s unworthy of your trust,” she told us. “How can we build things that are worthy of trust again?”
Good question. When it comes to Keir Starmer, the answer is absolutely not snubbing an antisemitism rally.
After all, this is the man who took a position in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet rather than resigning on principle, as the likes of Ian Austin did.
This is the man who campaigned to put Corbyn in Number Ten in 2019, then when that failed, won the leadership of Labour and purged the Corbynites.
What did Starmer say back then? Oh, yes. That he was going to “rip out antisemitism by the roots”.
How’s that one going? The glaring absence of his government Sunday rather calls his commitment – and, yet again, his trustworthiness – into question.
It contributed towards a sense of foreboding that is affecting Jews in Britain today; exactly the sense of foreboding that the rally was intended to address.
It’s not that Starmer sent a message of contempt in terms. He didn’t say it out loud. Rather, he displayed contempt with his actions.
It’s the same with the media. Most of the time, they steer clear of making openly Israelophobic statements. Time and time again, however, they show their bigotry with their ideological and misleading reporting.
It’s the same with the police, and at our universities. It is the same when it comes to proscribing Iran’s terror Guards; the government insists that it is being tough on Iran while failing to ban them from Britain.
All of this leaves Jews with a growing feeling that society is turning its back on us. Or worse, that it is actively working against us, whispering behind its hand when our backs are turned and coming up with new ways to make us feel isolated and unwanted.
Which brings me back to the point I made at the beginning of this column. The Prime Minister showed where his heart lay when he acted as if we weren’t there. In the contemptuous way in which it ignored the rally, the media showed the same thing.
Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself, by Jake Wallis Simons, is out on October 2 and can be ordered now
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