Jacob Judah
Times of Israel, July 3, 2024
“Outwardly, our dominant concerns seem to be about Israel and antisemitism, but inwardly — in our day-to-day lives — we’re focused on the same issues as the rest of British society, such as health care, education and the cost of living.”
Britain will go to the polls on Thursday in an election that will likely produce a once-in-a-generation political earthquake, and mark a notable shift for the country’s Jewish voters.
The opposition Labour Party is poised to win a historic victory over the Conservatives. The election will also constitute a pivot for the United Kingdom’s 290,000 Jews — precisely because they too are expected to vote largely for Labour after years of breaking with it.
Labour leader Keir Starmer — who has a Jewish wife — is expected to be the next prime minister, dislodging Rishi Sunak, and the scale of Labour’s projected victory is immense: Polling indicates that the Conservatives, who have been in power for 14 years, could win fewer than 100 seats out of the 650 in the House of Commons. It would be their worst defeat since the advent of modern democracy in Britain in 1832. … [To read the full article, click here]