Thirteen Jewish Labour MPs take their places in the Commons on first day back

At least 13 Jewish MPs were seated, or left standing, inside a packed House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon as parliament convened for the first time since Labour’s landslide general election victory.

In a sign of overwhelming success for Keir Starmer’s party, Labour now has 12 MPs known to be Jewish sitting on the government benches, including eight new arrivals.

And in a sign of one of worst elections in Conservative history, the party’s only Jewish representative is Sir Julian Lewis, re-elected in the New Forest East seat.

For Labour, Sarah Sackman, new MP for Finchley and Golders Green, and David Pinto-Duschinsky, who triumphed in Hendon by just 15 votes, were among the new Jewish intake.

Boosting the community’s showing in the Labour ranks also was Georgia Gould, the highly-regarded MP for Queens Park and Maida Vale, Ben Coleman, who won in Chelsea and Fulham, NHS surgeon Peter Prinsley won Bury St Edmunds and Josh Simons who won in the Makerfield seat in the north west.

In the Wirral, Matthew Patrick also became another Jewish Labour MP to take their seat in the Commons.

There were returns to the House for Alex Sobel who won his seat of Leeds Central and Headingley for Labour while in Leeds North East, Fabian Hamilton was also reelected.
Damien Egan also retook Bristol North East for Labour after first winning the seat in a by-election.

In Warrington North, Charlotte Nichols was also re-elected, as was Jon Trickett in Normanton and Hemsworth.

Seated on the Labour frontbench Ed Miliband, former leader and Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero completed the quota of Jewish Labour MPs.

During Tuesday’s formal re-opening of the Commons, first order of business was to elect a Speaker, with Sir Lindsay Hoyle returned to the role following a unanimous vote.

In a turn-around uin fortune for Britain’s first ever black MP Diane Abbott was confirmed as Mother of the House, the title given to the longest continuously serving female MP, alongside Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh.

Abbott had remained suspended over antisemitism claims following a letter written to the Observer, which downplayed racism against Jews, the Irish and travellers, until the early part of the general election campaign.

But she was controversially allowed to stand for her seat in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, after it emerged she was given a formal warning over her conduct and required to complete an “antisemitism awareness course”.

Speaking in the Commons for the first time as Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for politicians from all parties to commit to the ideal of service, rather than the politics of self-interest.

He said Abbott had  done “so much in her career over so many years to fight for a Parliament that truly represents modern Britain”.Rishi Sunak also spoke from the opposition front bench, confirming Abbott’s place as a “trailblazer” for women of colour.

As well as the 13 Jewish MPs, the election also saw staunch allies of the community newly-elected for Labour including Luke Akehurst in North Durham and Dan Tomlinson in Chipping Barnet.