Tagged Britain’s Labour Party

Prince Charles to visit Israel and West Bank in official capacity

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, will visit Israel for the first time in an official capacity next month in order to attend the upcoming World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem. According to The Jewish Chronicle, the British royal will “undertake a number of engagements… Read more »

Boris Johnson defeats Jeremy Corbyn by large margin in British elections

Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves a polling station after voting in the general elections in London, Dec. 12, 2019. (Yunus Dalgic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

LONDON (JTA) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has defeated Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party by a large margin in Britain’s general elections on Thursday, exit polls indicate. The Conservatives received 368 seats out of 650 according to the polls by BBC, ITV and Sky News, with Labour lagging… Read more »

I’m a proud British Jew troubled by Corbyn’s anti-Semitism problem — but I’m still voting for Labour

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn does arts and crafts during a visit to Winwood Heights Retirement Village in Nottingham, while on the 2019 election campaign trail. (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)

LONDON, England (JTA) — I am a secular Jew and a lifelong British Labour Party voter — two allegiances that once intersected very comfortably. As so many of us do, I inherited my politics. Every time Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was reelected, my mother and her friends held a… Read more »

Hugh Grant campaigns with Luciana Berger in London’s most Jewish borough

Actor Hugh Grant and Liberal Democrat Luciana Berger speak to a local resident during a campaign event Lodon, the United Kingdom on December 1, 2019 (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

(JTA) — As the United Kingdom nears the final stretch of what is shaping up to be one of its most fateful general elections since World War II, all eyes are on the leaders of its two main parties: Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn… Read more »

An Orthodox Jew is running for Jeremy Corbyn’s Parliament seat. He’ll need a miracle.

Yosef David says his Brexit Party is a "safe and friendly place" for Jews despite racism allegations. (Courtesy of David)

(JTA) — As an observant Jew, Yosef David was taught to believe in miracles. That’s a good thing since David, a social worker from London, is going to need one to succeed in his new mission: unseating Jeremy Corbyn from Parliament in the general election on Dec. 12. David… Read more »

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem is an election issue for non-Jews, too

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at the University of Lancaster, Nov. 15, 2019. (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Just like the Democratic Party in the U.S., Britain’s liberal Labour Party usually counts on star power for a boost. Ahead of the upcoming Dec. 12 general election, for instance, Labour has scooped up endorsements from major celebrities such as former Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher, pop… Read more »

UK’s Labour Party has an opportunity in upcoming elections. The anti-Semitism controversy is holding it back.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes a campaign speech in Battersea, England, Oct. 31, 2019. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

(JTA) – After nearly a decade in power, Britain’s Conservative Party is in tatters. Years of failing to negotiate a deal with the European Union to follow through with Brexit have led to internal party discord and roiled public frustration. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial push to leave the… Read more »

BBC airs expose accusing Jeremy Corbyn’s team of shielding anti-Semites

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking during a visit to the Regents Park Mosque in London, May 19, 2019. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Leaders of Britain’s Labour’s party shielded members from accusation of anti-Semitism amid an internal crisis that led to thousands of hate speech complaints but only 15 expulsions, the BBC reported. The findings aired Wednesday by the service’s flagship investigative television program “Panorama” represent the largest-scale journalistic focus… Read more »

3 lawmakers leave British Labour Party over anti-Semitism

(JTA) — Three lawmakers in the upper house of the British parliament left the Labour party over its spiraling anti-Semitism problem. David Triesman and Leslie Arnold Turnberg, who are Jewish, and Ara Darzi, who is not, announced their resignation on Tuesday. They will stay on as independents in the House of Lords.… Read more »

Labour readmits key Corbyn ally who said British party is too apologetic on anti-Semitism

Labour MP Chris Williamson on September 4, 2018 in London. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

‏(JTA) — A key ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who was suspended from the British party for sayings it is “too apologetic” over anti-Semitism has been readmitted. A party ethics panel warned lawmaker Chris Williamson on Wednesday for saying earlier this year that when it comes to Labour’s… Read more »

It’s not just anti-Semitism: Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit problem is also a disaster for Jews

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jews are rarely central to peacetime domestic British politics. But on Feb. 18, Jewishness appeared front and center at Westminster when seven members of Parliament left the Labour Party, citing its inability to effectively oppose an unworkable Brexit and its apparent unwillingness to confront anti-Semitism. Some of… Read more »

Senior Labour lawmaker quits over alleged inaction on anti-Semitism

(JTA) — A senior lawmaker for Britain’s Labour Party who was facing sexual harassment allegations has quit the party, citing its anti-Semitism problem. Ivan Lewis , who is Jewish, resigned on Thursday from Labour, where he had served as chief whip — a post whose duties include enforcing coalition… Read more »

These non-Jews are fighting Labour anti-Semitism from the inside

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 26: Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn addresses delegates on day four of the Labour Party conference at the Arena and Convention Centre on September 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. In his closing speech to the conference the Labour leader will promise to 'kickstart a green jobs revolution' and expand the provision of free childcare should Labour win power. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Steeped in anti-Semitism accusations involving him and his supporters, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has made many Jewish enemies — including inside his own party. But one of his most effective critics is not Jewish. He is a meteorology student at the University of Reading who describes himself… Read more »

5 reasons why some British Jews are supporting the Labour Party, despite charges of anti-Semitism

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, second from right, speaking with guests during a National Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, Jan. 26, 2017. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Relations between British Jewry and the country’s Labour Party, which used to be their political home, appear to be at a historic low point. Ahead of the June 8 general elections in the United Kingdom, a Jewish Chronicle poll from last week put support for the center-left… Read more »

Brexit splits UK from Europe and Labour from its party leader

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in London after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, June 24, 2016. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

(JTA) —  Only a week ago, Jeremy Corbyn seemed to have survived his biggest public relations debacle as the leader of Britain’s Labour Party:  the proliferation of anti-Semitic rhetoric among its members. Yet this week, the British vote to leave the European Union achieved what Corbyn’s opponents failed to… Read more »