Labour has ‘broadly got it right’ on Israel, MP Sarah Sackman tells Limmud
Speaking in personal capacity at the festival, the Finchley and Golders Green MP says Labour needs to improve the way it gets its message over to the communty, and the wider public
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Finchley and Golders Green MP Sarah Sackman has strongly defended the perfomance of Keir Starmer’s government, insisting Labour had “broadly got it right” in relation to policies around Israel.
But in a fascinating conversation with Board of Deputies senior vice-president Adrian Cohen at the Limmud Festival, the Justice Minister, who was speaking in a personal capacity said the goverment are “yet to tell a convincing story on what we are doing and why it is we are doing it”.
Sackman, whose election victory in the north London seat in July confirmed strong communal backing once again for Labour under Starmer, said the government was operating in an “incredibly challenging period” in the aftermath of the October 7th Hamas attack.
But she added that in politics “storytelling and comms (communications) is really important”.
“If things are not being communicated, whether to our Jewish communty or to the wider community, then that’s on us for not being good enough storytellers, and I think it that regard the government can improve,” she told the packed audience for Monday’s session in Birmingham.
Sackman had begun the event, introduced by Joshua Garfield, deputy director of the Labour Friends of Israel organisation, by discussing her deep family roots in Gibraltar.
She also recalled an election night phone call from Starmer’s ex chief of staff Sue Gray to altert her to a call within the next hour from the new PM.
Already pinching herself over being elected the MP for the UK’s largest Jewish constituency, Gray told Sackman of her junior ministerial post as Solicitor General.
Sackman jokingly told the Limmud gathering thatshe had initially had to Google search what the job entailed.
But in a lengthy appraisal of the government’s first months in office Sackman praised Starmer’s own track-record for being able to sell a convincing political pitch to the country.
He had managed to turn Labour’s catastrophic 2019 election defeat into the 2024 landslide victory at the July general election, she recalled.
“That doesn’t happen by accident,” Sackman observed.
“That happens by winning the arguement, both internally within the party, and then turning outwards to win over the public.”
Starmer, she observed, “now has a job to do in shifting gear” to sell the story of what it was doing in office to the general public.
During a riveting one hour long session, Cohen, the lay chair of LFI, referenced last weekend’s Jewish News report which suggested the government was facing widespread calls to do better from leading figures within the Jewish community. SPECIAL REPORT ‘Must Do Better!’ The community’s verdict on the Starmer government so far
“I think the situation in the Middle East is incredibly challenging,” said Sackman.
“The events of October 7 are the worst in my lifetime as a Jew,” continued Sackman. “I think that view is shared by many.
“We have been living since permanently thinking about the hostages, but also the loss of life that is taking place in Gaza and across the Middle East ever since.
“I think we have all been living in a state of absolute anguish ever since.”
But in terms of its policies over the past six months, Sackman added:”I think the government had broadly got it right.
“I think it’s got it right in terms of calling for an immediate return of the hostages, in terms of calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“I think it’s got it right on calling for the Israeli government to increase the amount of aid going into Gaza, and reminding the world that we need to get back to a position where we can start reinvigorating a peace process towards a two state solution, which is the only solution that is going to bring about a resolution in the Middle East.”
Sackman also noted that the community did not speak with one voice towards Israel.
“It’s difficult, we are not a monolith, the community thinks lots of different things,” she said.
“The community has really quite strong opinions on where it stands and how it feels about the Netanyahu government
“But equally the support and people’s connection to Israel has also increased since October 7.
“Those two things can be things that both hold true in our minds at the same time.
“I can hold the opinion that I want the hostages out yesterday, and that has to be unconditional, and a matter of urgency, and I want the government to be doing all it can …. I know that work is happening.
“I can also want to see an end to the suffering in Gaza and more aid getting to Palestinians. Those two things … it is incredibly complicated.”
Sackman suggested the government was already proving itself to be “very strong on working to combat antisemitism at home.”
“Whether that’s increasing funding for the CST, who I think are doing an amazing job, not least here at the Limmud Festival, in funding and mandating Holocaust education, but also in terms of urging a cross-government approach to dealing with antisemitism,” she said.
“That to me speaks of a government that understands the concerns of the community.
“It doesn’t mean we are all going to agree. It doesn’t mean we are all going to become big supporters of this government.
“But fundamentally, Does the Labour government have the backs of the Jewish community?
“I think the answer is a resounding ‘yes'”.
Sackman also insisted some of the criticism directed at the Starmer government more generally had been unfair, with some of the media commentariat deciding “this government has already run out of road six months in. ”
“I utterly, utterly reject that,” she stressed.
But interestingly, Sackman did appear to call for her own party to improve the way it delivered its message to the nation, adding that while the first six months had not all been “plain sailing” there had already been significant advances with the launch of GB Energy, legislation on workers rights, and in rental reforms.
She also said that having entered the justice arena, Sackman saw that the previous government had left “an absolute scandal of a situation” includng over-flowing prisons which amounted to a “dereliction of duty”.
“I’m not going to make any apologies for not fixing things on day one, with the economy the state it was in,” she added.
“But I am hopefully about the potential of government to bring about change.
“But we’ve got to be long-termist, and we need the country to stick with us and not give up from day one.”
She then added:”I think that part of our job is to create mood music.
“Mood music in which people themselves feel themselves to be part of something bigger than themselves. ”
Calling for an improvement in the way the public learned of what a Starmer government is doing, Sackman said:”I know this government is doing fantastic things, and yet we are yet to tell a convincing story on what it is we are doing and why we are doing it and it the long run that is going to benefit the British people”.
The proudly Jewish MP also dismissed claims that one problem with the government was that it was stuffed with too many lawyers at the top, and not enough political expertise.
“A good lawyer knows how to build an argument,” said Sackman, who is a barrister herself, with extensive knowledge of planning law.
“Keir Starmer managed to take the Labout Party from its worst ever election result since the 1930s, to a landslide victory in 2024.
“That doesn’t happen by accident.
“That happens by winning the argument, both internally within the party, and then turning outwards to win over the public.
“I think he has a job to do in shifting gear.
“But if we can find the storytellers within our party and we have them, we have a number of them, if we can find that narrative I think this government can be hugely, hugely successful”.
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