Keir Starmer will give keynote speech to Labour Friends of Israel lunch
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Keir Starmer will give keynote speech to Labour Friends of Israel lunch

Labour leader confirmed as guest of honour for the event due to take place in November

Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has agreed to give the keynote speech at the annual Labour Friends of Israel lunch.

The Labour leader has been confirmed as guest of honour for the event, which is scheduled to take place in November at a venue in central London.

Sources say Starmer took little convincing to accept the invitation to speak at the lunch.

It is the first time a Labour leader has addressed LFI’s lunch event since Ed Miliband delivered a speech in 2014.

In 2018, Issac Herzog spoke at the prestigious event as chair of the Jewish Agency.

Former Labour deputy Tom Watson and ex-foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has also spoke at past lunches.

Relations between LFI and previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn rapidly deteriorated.

Corbyn delivered a speech at LFI’s annual event at the Labour Party conference in 2016 – but the following year he pointedly pulled out appearing at the same event.

Last year’s lunch was cancelled due to the impact of the pandemic, while the 2019 event was postponed due to the general election.

Organisers of this year’s lunch are confident it will go ahead, but have
have contingencies in place to ensure that it will go ahead as a smaller gathering or online if the Covid virus causes further changes to social distancing measures.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: