Jewish Labour Movement calls for Tory mayor hopeful to ‘substantiate’ claims about Khan or ‘apologise’

The Jewish Labour Movement have accused the London Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall of resorting to the “politics of the gutter – inflammatory, unsubstantiated and laden with dog-whistles” with her claims about the Jewish community and Sadiq Khan.

In a stinging letter written by JLM national chair Mike Katz, and also sent to Tory Party chairman Greg Hands, Hall is asked to “either substantiate your claims about the mayor, or to retract them and deliver a public apology.”

The letter states that as London mayor, Khan “has demonstrated his leadership through his actions – from standing with the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism to promoting community cohesion. ”

It notes his first official engagement as Mayor was to attend a Holocaust memorial event and that each year, “he has been welcomed with open arms into some of the largest synagogues in the country to mark Jewish festivals. ”

It adds: “When we were fighting hard against antisemitism in our own Party, Sadiq stood firmly beside us. In March 2018, when over two thousand Jews rallied against antisemitism in Corbyn’s Labour in Parliament Square, Sadiq made sure the protest could happen quickly and safely.  Without him, it could not have happened.

“At Labour Party Conference in 2019, he delivered a powerful speech at our rally at Middle Street Synagogue in Brighton. At a time when too many people looked the other way, we always knew we could count on Sadiq for support.”

It continues: “For years now, we at JLM have had to deal with people in our own Party pitting communities against each other. “We know what it is like to truly be frightened of senior politicians. When it became clear that the Labour Party under previous leadership could not be trusted to protect its Jewish members, we referred it to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

“Throughout those years, we always argued that all we wanted was for politicians to treat our community fairly and decently – not to entangle us in political games. We have had quite enough of politicians trying to use our community as political pawns.

“Your comments are the politics of the gutter – inflammatory, unsubstantiated and laden with dog-whistles.”