JLM’s Mike Katz announces bid to be next Hendon MP

The National vice-chair of the Jewish Labour Movement has announced his bid to be Hendon’s MP at the next General Election.

Mike Katz will try to unseat Conservative incumbent Matthew Offord when voters next go to the polls, it has been revealed by the local politician.

Taking to Twitter, he said: “I’m standing to be @hendonlabour’s next MP again. We came close to dumping the right-wing, hard Brexit-backing Tory MP last year. Together we can finish the job and put Labour back in power!”

Katz narrowly lost to Offord at the last election, where he bemoaned the party’s anti-Semitism row as a contributing factor to his defeat.

Despite slashing the incumbent’s majority from 3,700 to 1,000, he said he had “fought to win” what was always going to a “tough challenge”, and that cutting the majority had been a “huge achievement”.

After the defeat, he reflected on the anti-Semitism row’s role in the loss, saying: “It would be folly to ignore it as a factor. I had many conversations with people who said ‘I like you, I like Labour’s policies, I’ve no love for the incumbent but can’t vote for your your party and its leadership because of recent events. It was a conversation that went beyond the Jewish community.

Since his defeat, Labour lost control of Barnet council during the local elections, with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell reflecting on the results, saying: “anti-Semitism certainly had its effect, there’s no doubt about it, in Barnet itself.”