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Labour needs a decade to win back the trust of the Jewish community, says Dame Margaret Hodge

Dame Margaret Hodge speaking during the Jewish Labour Movement Conference in September 2018. She claims the Labour Party has a huge task in regaining the trust of the Jewish community - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe
Dame Margaret Hodge speaking during the Jewish Labour Movement Conference in September 2018. She claims the Labour Party has a huge task in regaining the trust of the Jewish community - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe

Labour needs a decade to win back the trust of the Jewish community, Dame Margaret Hodge has said as she urged Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to set up an independent complaints system into anti-Semitism.

In a Labour web conference last weekend, the former Labour Minister of State for Culture and Tourism warned Sir Keir that it would take years before Jewish people once again felt comfortable in the Labour Party.

She said: "Getting back the confidence of the Jewish community, getting them to vote Labour again, is going to be a massively long, long struggle, and I would give it a decade or so before we get there."

In a virtual meeting with other MPs and activists, Dame Margaret said she did not understand why Sir Keir was waiting for a report from the human rights watchdog before setting up an independent complaints system.

She said: "I can’t quite work out why we aren’t already setting up an independent complaints system, I think we should be doing that now. I don’t think we should wait for this long-awaited report to come out."

She told an audience of Labour activists of the the "hugely difficult and utterly miserable" time she had experienced under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, with some Labour activists calling female Jewish MPs ‘Zionist bitches’ and calling for their execution.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer - Ben Stansall/AFP
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer - Ben Stansall/AFP

She said: "Four years under Corbyn were hugely difficult and utterly miserable for many of us. The insults were grotesque, just to remind you, I was called a Zionist bitch the whole time, Ruth Smeeth and I were called a couple of xxx-buckets, I was told the only help I deserved was help up the steps to the execution position, and I was told how could half of 1 per cent of the British population have such an influence. It was awful. It was difficult to stay."

On Tuesday, Sir Keir will deliver his first major speech since becoming elected Labour leader, when he will set out his vision for Britain after the coronavirus pandemic and his determination to get Labour back in power.

Ahead of the speech, he said: “Labour is offering a new leadership. A new leadership for our party and for our country.

"We have a mountain to climb to win the next election, but even in a matter of months we have demonstrated our determination to listen, to change and to rebuild people’s trust.”

A Labour spokesman was approached for comment about Dame Margaret's remarks.