Chief Rabbi: ‘Politics of scapegoating and hatred will never succeed’

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has said the EHRC’s report into antisemitism proves the “politics of scapegoating and hatred will never succeed”.

The faith leader, who was an outspoken critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the antisemitism row, made his comments after the Equality and Human Rights founder Labour was guilty of allowing antisemitism.

In a statement, he said he read it “with much sadness”, saying the fact Labour had “fallen to such depths represents a historic nadir.”

• READ MORE – Live blog: Equalities watchdog’s damning verdict on Labour antisemitism: GUILTY AS CHARGED  

He added, “the impact of this report reaches well beyond the issue of antisemitism or the Jewish community, by sending a powerful message that the politics of scapegoating and hatred will never succeed.”

While welcoming Keir Starmer’s response to the report, where he apologised and restated his commitment to implementing new and independent processes, Chief Rabbi Mirvis said the community “will work together with him” to tackle the problem.

He also paid tribute to “all those who came forward to share their concerns about the way that complaints about antisemitism were being handled”, including whistleblowers who appeared in a BBC Panorama expose. He said their “fortitude has been so profoundly vindicated” and they “placed the cause of challenging prejudice ahead of their own interests and many of them paid an exceptionally high price for doing so.”