INTERVIEW: Starmer calls for ‘mindset change’ to interfaith work in 7 October aftermath
Speaking to Jewish News, the Labour leader says mutual understanding is not as deep as he had thought and existing structures are not strong enough to withstand current pressures
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Keir Starmer has called for a “mindset change” in attempts to bring Jewish, Muslim and other minority communities together in this country.
Speaking to Jewish News the Labour leader admitting deteriorating communal relations in the UK since the Hamas terror attack of last October have shown existing interfaith structures have not been strong enough to “withstand the pressures” now put on them.
After delivering what he said had been an “emotional” speech at the JW3 community centre in north-west London, Starmer said:” There are things that can be done in terms of security, policing, and hate crime, because the figures, particularly with hate crime, are going through the roof.
“But the real hard job, I think, is in segmenting, rebuilding and making much deeper interfaith work. We’ve got much more to do than I think any of us appreciated.
“But it will only happen when we have the politics of common cause.”
The Labour leader’s comments came only days after Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis had called for a “new shift” in interfaith dialogue. with Jews and Muslims in the UK openly discussing “the elephant in the room” of Israel.
Starmer was deeply critical of what he claimed was the current Conservative government’s attempt to “divide” and to “create a wedge” between communities.
The MP for Holborn and St Pancras and former Director of Public Prosecutions said that his own experience of interfaith work in Camden, north London had left him with an impression that “cooperation, understanding and mutual support was much deeper than it transpires to be.”
But he said that the “past two or three months” had offered a very different picture of interfaith relations in the UK.
“I think we have to be honest about where we are at the moment,” he said. “Which is a much worse position than I think we were in.
“I am concerned that what I thought went very deep across the country with interfaith work wasn’t as deep as I thought.
“It is not and hasn’t been strong enough to withstand the pressures that are now on different communities. And it’s not just two communities.
“It’s a number of communities. And I think that’s a lesson for me. I had thought in my own mind that those structures, those ways of working were stronger than they have turned out to be.”
In his speech, given at the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference, Starmer had noted how pro-Palestinian protests in the aftermath of the October 7th atrocity had become a infested with a minority of activists who “hate Jews.”
Starmer had been introduced on-stage at the event by Mike Katz, JLM’s national chair, alongside Finchley and Golders Green parliamentary candidate Sarah Sackman.
He also pledged to “double-down” on interfaith work if Labour were elected into government. Starmer appeared to take encouragement from previous Labour efforts to tackle problems in “cities like Glasgow or Liverpool” which he said were once “divided by religion and sectarianism.”
Starmer added that “over time” Labour had “helped bring together towards the politics of the common good.”
Starmer elaborated on his vision for improving the current situation, after Mitzvah Day founder Laura Marks, who attended last Sunday’s speech by the Labour leader,, raised concerns herself with him about “very damaged relations” between the Jewish community and others following the October 7th atrocity.
Marks, who has regularly welcomed Starmer and his family at Mitzvah Day events at South Hampstead Synagogue, had told Starmer that currently “very little” resource is given to interfaith work, after she took part in a Q&A session with him at JW3.
Speaking to Jewish News backstage at the JLM event, Starmer said that if Labour “had the privilege” of being elected into government at the next election he was not advocating rejecting the current interfaith model entirely.
“We have got to do it better,” he said. “We’ve got to double down and do even more work to ensure that it works. Not just in Camden, which is where I’ve been directly involved, but across the whole country, so that requires resolve and attention.
“It also requires a mindset change because it is very difficult to do interfaith work when you have got a government that when it sees a problem thinks ‘how can we find a divide? How can we find a wedge?’
“I’m genuinely concerned about where the Tory Party is taking this country when they see a problem. ‘Woke, woke woke, divide, divide, divide’.
“These are dangerous words when you are trying to bring communities together in this country. ”
Starmer added: “I give you my assurance, that we will, if we get the chance, try to reset this and make sure that we work together as one country, with all of our communities feeling secure and confident and able to contribute. Not just to the debaie in the country, but also to the future of the country.”
He added: “That understanding, that mutual support, that tolerance that comes from interfaith work is hugely, hugely important.”
Earlier as he spoke to a packed audience at the JLM event, Starmer had revealed he had made regular visits to JW3 with his wife Vic, and their kids, including using the ice-rink at the front of the Finchley Road venue, and that he was left feeling “emotional” making a speech in a year that he is being widely credited with having turned the fortunes of Labour around.
But Starmer warned JLM members against complacency and said election victory over the Tories was “not a done deal.”
Speaking to other communal reporters Stamer confirmed Jewish News’ exclusive of last year, which revealed Labour had dropped a pledge for the “immediate”| recognition of the state of Palestine, if his party were elected into Downing Street.
Starmer said there was “no risk” that the party would return to the policy it inherited under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, which was to recognise a Palestinian state on “day one” of a Labour government.
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