OPINION: How former MPs can strengthen communal bonds

‘There’s nothing more ex than an ex-MP’ is a glib response former MPs trot out when friends and contacts ask what we have planned post Parliament.

Sadly, whether voluntarily exiting the role or being ejected by the electorate, the saying has a sad ring of truth about it. Inevitably the phone doesn’t ring so often, “friends’ are increasingly hard to pin down for those coffee meets or the beers after work. That’s life.

Sadly it also means that communal organisations, so important to the Jewish community, are depleting their pool of friends and supporters. Given the current situation when the community feels under siege, with increasing levels of anti-Semitism, the need for friends and allies is as great as it’s ever been. Yet the ‘alumni’ are being allowed to drift away.

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When was the last time you raged at a company you’ve dealt with – think of car insurance renewals- for years, who seem more interested in the new customer than looking after those that have been loyal for years ! It’s an age old mistake to focus on the new ‘customers’ and forget the old customers who organisations have invested in over many years. The costs of acquiring a new supporter/customer can be considerably more that retaining the established ones in the network.

Perhaps some organisations think former MPs are no longer of use, I suspect most will simply not have given it a thought, it’s an unforced error rather than malice.

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I understand entirely that the community needs to establish strong links with new Members of Parliament, whatever their political alliegance. Perfectly sensible and natural. But take a look at the fundraising dinners or the awareness events, same faces, same donors and sadly an ageing cohort. So of course it’s necessary to attract ‘new blood’. But why discard those the community have spent years nurturing.

Supporters shouldn’t be allowed to drift away through neglect. Perhaps some organisations think former MPs are no longer of use, I suspect most will simply not have given it a thought, it’s an unforced error rather than malice.

Parliament is important for ensuring policies and laws reflect the needs of the community, of making sure the voices of the community are heard. Yet advocates on the ground, embedded in the wider community can have an important role to play.

Since leaving Parliament, I’ve spoken to community leaders and at synagogues about how to get the wider British public to see the community I’ve gotten to know and admire. I remain convinced that the wider British public are not anti-Semitic but that they simply have no knowledge of the Jewish community.

I often joked that 60% of the UK’s Jewish population were within a ten minute drive of my house in Finchley. I’ve argued the community needs to develop a wide ranging outreach programme (I nick named it ‘Shabbat on Tour’) to show the public what the Jewish community is all about.

Let them see the warmth, the resilience, the commitment to education, family, charity and yes, let them see a community vilified and targeted. Part of the outreach could be the network of ‘alumni’ that are being neglected.

I have no doubt that the network of former MPs would welcome organisations reaching out. Organisations should establish those alumni networks while the cohort is still ‘warm’. Leave it too long and the relationship will have cooled perhaps to a point where it’s hard to revive.

The community has many many friends, don’t let them go to waste!

• Mike Freer, former Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, left the Commons on 30 May 2024