Keir Starmer’s strives to end Labour’s anti-Semitism branding

“So here’s Labour again dogged by the interminable issue of anti-Semitism and conveying the impression to the public that the Party is as ever hopelessly split.  There is an issue of perhaps largely unintended anti-Semitism in the Party caused by the role of Israel in international affairs and by the treatment of the Palestinians.  Israel is clearly open to criticism.  The problem is that some on the Left of the Labour Party have at times veered towards a type of anti-Semitism in opposing Israel, even if it is unconscious.  Labour’s alleged anti-Semitism becomes a big issue, however, because the Conservative press is more vigorous in seeking it out than it is in challenging racist elements in the Conservative Party.

Keir Starmer judges that he is right to ‘stand down’, as he politely expressed the word ‘sack’, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour MP for Salford and Eccles and former Shadow Education Secretary, and as it gives out a signal of strong leadership that many voters like and contrasts with Johnson holding on to damaged figures such as Dominic Cummings and Robert Jenryck.  It is also clear that the far left of the Labour Party was rejected by voters in the two General Elections of 2017 and 2019 and that Starmer rightly feels he has to take a symbolic step to show that Labour can be electorally competitive in the centre of the British political spectrum.  The ‘sacking’ will cause a few ructions and he must proceed deftly if he is to manage and marginalise the far left of the Party.  He judges, however, that he has to distance himself from the Corbyn era and this sacking is one of those events because something has to be done.  Otherwise, he will end up leading the Party to a fifth consecutive, and possibly terminal, General Election defeat in 2024.”