A poll of 1,864 British
Jewish adults by Campaign Against Antisemitism has found that 87% of British
Jews believe that the Labour Party is too tolerant of antisemites in its ranks.
Most other parties also fared badly, with 37-49% of British Jews believing that
they harboured antisemites. It was only the Conservative Party which scored
better, with 13% of British Jews criticising the way that the party handles
cases of antisemitism.
The polling was
conducted as part of CAA’s Antisemitism Barometer study which will be released
in full in October.
Respondents were asked:
“Do you feel that any political parties are too tolerant of antisemitism among
their MPs, members and supporters?” The results were as follows:
The results constitute a
stark warning over the rise of antisemitism in left-wing political parties. The
shift is particularly notable because the Labour Party and left-wing parties
were once responsible for leading the fight against racism, whereas this
polling shows that British Jews now consider them to be the most tolerant of
antisemitism.
Whereas
each of the parties concerned has strong policies against racism, the figures
show that the Jewish community does not believe that those policies are
implemented firmly when it comes to antisemitism. This is likely to be due to a
series of failures to deal with individual incidents, such as those involving
Labour’s Ken Livingstone, and
the Liberal Democrats’ Baroness Tonge.
It is important to note
that there is no evidence that parties’ supporters favour a soft approach to
antisemitism. The failure to deal robustly with antisemitism is more likely to
be a result of a failure to recognise and understand the many guises of modern
antisemitism.
The two major right-wing
parties fared very differently. UKIP, which has had several high-profile
problems with racism, was felt by 43% of British Jews to tolerate antisemitism
in its ranks. Of particular note is that UKIP was rated badly by half as many
British Jews as Labour, which has strong roots in the anti-racist
movement. In contrast, 13% of British Jews — the lowest of any party
— found the Conservatives’ treatment of antisemites to be problematic.
In
response to the rise of antisemitism in political parties, CAA
is launching its manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties.
It calls on parties to commit to three principles: parties should adopt the
‘international’ definition of antisemitism used by the College of
Policing; they should investigate antisemitism swiftly and transparently; and
they should treat antisemitism by party members in public office particularly
severely.
