Theresa May calls for ‘every one of us’ to tackle antisemitism in 2019
Prime minister says she "never thought I would see the day" when Jewish people considered leaving the country due to antisemitism
Theresa May called for 2019 to be the year in which “every one of us” commits to tackling antisemitism.
Responding to a question from John Mann MP at PMQs, the Prime Minister said she “never thought I would see the day, when Jewish people living in this country questioned whether they should stay”.
Mann told the prime minister for 400 years “almost uniquely”, Britain “has been a place of safety and security” for Jews. But, in “2018, many in the Jewish community are questioning whether this will be the case into the future, and a disturbingly large number of young Jewish people, are questioning whether they should remain in this country.”
Calling it a “a terrible state of affairs”, May insisted there is “no place for racial hatred in our society”, and called for politicians to “take every step to tackle it”.
“Jewish people should be able to feel safe and secure in this country, I don’t want, and I never thought I would see the day, when Jewish people living in this country questioned whether they should stay in this country.”
She added, Mann was “absolutely right” to talk about “the need for us all, every one of us, to stand up now, as we go into the new year and say 2019,w ill be the year when we stand up and say there is no place for antisemitism or racist hatred in our society”
Mann is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism, who co-organised the recent Sara Conference with the Antisemitism Policy Trust, tackling Jew-hatred and discrimination against women.
May said she was “very pleased to host the reception” before the Sara Conference “looking at the twin evils of misogyny and antisemitism.”
During the event at the end of November, the prime minister gave a passionate speech, saying she has “no time for equivocation. Antisemitism is racism – and any ‘equality’ movement that indulges or ignores it is not worthy of the name.”
She also appeared to launch a thinly veiled attack on Jeremy Corbyn, saying antisemitic “attitudes are not limited to the far Right. As is so often the case with antisemitism, bigotry directed at Jewish women also comes from those who would never consider themselves to be racist, including within the women’s rights movement itself.”
Watch John Mann’s question to the Prime Minister here
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