Starmer accused of ‘insult’ over photo op at Berlin Holocaust memorial

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy have been criticised by a German Jewish group for filming themselves walking through a Holocaust memorial in Berlin.

Tikvah Institut, which tackles antisemitism in Germany, blasted the senior Labour pair for using footage of themselves walking through blocks of stone in the German capital for a PR video, saying this was a big no-no in the country.

In a tweet, the organisation asked Labour “why do [you] use the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as a background for your election campaign video without even mentioning the #Shoah?”

A spokesman for the UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) concurred. “It is a matter of decency and long-established convention in Germany that you never stoop to using the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as some kind of a prop,” he said.

Hallo @UKLabour, why do use the #Holocaust #Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) as a background for your election campaign video without even mentioning the #Shoa with any single word?#desturbing #berlinhttps://t.co/kHgBhxoW5g

— Tikvah Institut gUG (@TikvahInstitut) July 17, 2022

“To incorporate the Memorial as the backdrop for a political clip that does not even mention the Holocaust is an insult. This is especially so for a political party that itself still has serious problems with antisemitism in its ranks.

“Exploiting a visit to the Holocaust Memorial like this for campaigning purposes is not just tasteless, it is manipulative and repulsive.”

Twitter users piled in, calling it “a massive faux pas”, “hideously inappropriate”, and “extremely bad taste”, but former Labour MP Ruth Smeeth leapt to Starmer’s defence, saying she thought the criticism was political and unjustified.

Smeeth said the Labour leader “has a proud record in fighting antisemitism,” adding: “He visited the Holocaust memorial and spoke about it at the time. This attack is not only wrong, but completely disingenuous and deeply unfair. And attempts to politicise something that simply shouldn’t be.”

Minutes after the Memorial visit, Starmer told Jewish News that – as prime minister – he would work with the Community Security Trust (CST), the British antisemitism charity, in a “new effort” to tackle anti-Jewish hatred in the UK.