“We'll Carry on Fighting”
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REBECCA TAYLOR: The last time I met County Council. It doesn’t mean I’m not a left might fight on. It might not be simple you, Louise, was in 2017 in an interview Labour person because I am. I could never to remove these people. for JR. You were terribly concerned join another party. Now I’ve left, I can see MH: You can’t overestimate the task. about antisemitism in the Labour Party how quickly something bad can take hold. We need to ask: what will zero tolerance but insisted you would continue to fight How few people are prepared to speak of antisemitism look like under a new it from within. What changed? up for what‘s right and that there are a leader? It’s always been on the fringes LOUISE ELLMAN: I started to feel it was significant number of people who know but now it’s in the mainstream – although possible that Corbyn could become prime precisely what is going on but go along with most Labour Party members are appalled minister. I didn’t think there would be a it so they don’t jeopardise their positions. by how it has infected the party. If you look majority Labour government but there at the post-war Jewish MPs, most of them could be a minority and the Lib Dems RT: That’s something you brought up, were in the Labour Party. Now, I’m the last would help put Corbyn in No.10. I felt very Margaret, at the leadership hustings at Jewish woman Labour MP. I call myself the uncomfortable with being part of that. St John’s Wood synagogue in February. last woman standing. I went to the Party conference and MARGARET HODGE: Emily Thornberry, spoke at a fringe meeting. I said I didn’t Clive Lewis and Keir Starmer were so RT: Margaret, have you considered think Corbyn was fit to be prime minister. passionate in their pronouncements standing down? Then, I went to the next constituency that antisemitism had to be eliminated! MH: All the time. It’s as hard to stay as it is meeting in Liverpool. The faces in the I sat there thinking: where on earth were to leave. But if you are on the outside it’s room were even more thunderous than you? If the shadow cabinet had been more difficult to influence events on the inside. usual. I was challenged about my remarks. public in their criticism of antisemitism we One member said he’d rather talk about might have stalled its progress. RT: What issues should the new leader inequality and poverty than antisemitism. focus on? Everyone cheered. I looked round the RT: Margaret, is your constituency party MH: During the leadership campaigns room, at the faces filled with loathing, and supportive of you? there were many difficult issues that were I thought: this is the Labour Party at rock MH: I first took on Corbyn in that very hardly touched on: the world of work, bottom; I can’t stand this any more. public way at the end of last July. I went artificial intelligence and terrorism. Within a day, a resolution had been put back to my constituency party and I Immigration was barely talked about. forward calling for a vote of ‘no confidence’ realised I hadn’t really spoken to them I fought the extreme right in Barking in me. The date for the vote was on Yom about it. I have a big Muslim membership and Dagenham [in the 2010 general Kippur. I don’t know if they knew it was and I wondered how this was going to go election Hodge battled to keep her seat Yom Kippur. I don’t think they would have down. But I described what had happened from the BNP]. Politicians have a voice cared even if they did. A week went by in a very open way. There were 300 people but they have never used that voice to talk and the date remained unchanged until in the room and I got a standing ovation, about immigration in a positive way. I someone from Corbyn’s office called them which was really warming and Muslim talk about integration rather than how we “WE’LL CARRY ON FIGHTING” begging them to withdraw the vote. By then after Muslim got up and said, “What you’ve control numbers. Part of globalisation is I’d decided I should leave. described is like the Islamophobia we’ve the movement of people across borders. It’s experienced.” There was a real coming a reality and if you fight it, all you are doing RT: This was from your constituency together, ironically of the people Corbyn is giving promises you’ll never fulfil and party. Did any of your Liverpool voters thinks he’s representing. you fuel greater suspicion of the political The Labour MP Margaret Hodge (above, left) and former Labour MP Louise Ellman have been share their point of view? class for failing to deliver. two of the fiercest critics of their party in recent years. On the eve of Labour’s leadership election, LE: No. One thing that is upsetting is that RT: Louise, would you rejoin the party? LE: One concern I have is that the UK (and Rebecca Taylor speaks to both women about the future challenges for tackling antisemitism, when people hear about antisemitism LE: Yes, if antisemitism is dealt with. the Labour Party) might look inwards and being an issue they think we are talking Under the new leader, antisemitism needs create an insular society, where people Brexit, immigration – and bumping into Jeremy Corbyn in the lift. Photography Rob Greig about Liverpool people. I’m talking to be expelled fast and that would send turn on each other. The new leader has to about the people who joined Labour after a message to the others on the fringes. show people the benefits of having people Corbyn became the leader. Most people They have to take action not just talk. The from many places working together. didn’t think like that at all. People stopped findings from the Equalities and Human MH: My constituency voted 2:1 to leave – argaret Hodge is about House of Commons. By the time you read aggressive at the best of times,” says Hodge me in the street to express support over Rights Commission (EHRC) report will be partly to ‘take back control’ and partly so to have a new neighbour. this he’ll have installed the coffee maker with a chuckle. We’re joined in her office the antisemitism issue, people at my announced and that will be a key moment. they could turn Barking and Dagenham Just a few steps down the and be enjoying the new view. today by Louise Ellman, the former Labour surgeries thought it was terrible. Its recommendations need to be followed. into a ‘whites only’ place. When I arrived corridor from her office Hodge has been a ferocious critic of MP for Liverpool Riverside, who resigned The complaints process also needs to be in the area in 1994 it was a white, tight- – high up in Portcullis Corbyn – one of her last communications from her post in October 2019 over RT: How did being forced out affect you? changed. But it’s about people at the top knit community. I’d never met so many House with sweeping with the Labour leader was to blast him concerns of antisemitism in the Party and LE: Emotionally I’d gone so far. I couldn’t of the party and what they believe. We great-grandmothers who lived within ten views of Westminster Abbey – a nameplate as an “antisemitic racist” in a furious after facing an increasingly hostile climate deal with it any more. I didn’t want to need a leader who doesn’t hold those same minutes of their great-grandchildren. I’ve Mon the door reads: Right Hon Jeremy confrontation between the pair in the in her local constituency. leave. I wanted to keep fighting. But I ideologies – someone who thinks they are always been a ‘remainer’ but everything I Corbyn MP. House of Commons last July. Who wouldn’t With a new leader about to take charge didn’t want to be in the party any more. anti-racist, but being anti-Jewish is OK. do is about how to reconnect with the local This is the office-in-waiting for the want to be a fly on the wall when those of the Labour Party, I’m meeting with these It was a terrible trauma for me and It might be difficult to change things. community. People’s politics start from the (soon to be former) Labour Party leader. two bump into each other in the Portcullis two veteran campaigners to talk about the still is. The Labour Party has been my life. It’s not just about who is the leader but local, such as housing. If you respond to Following the announcement of the Party’s House lift? possibility of change: are they hopeful for I joined when I was 18 and I’ve been in it who is in control of the party – its officials, that – or to the siting of a bus stop, or a rat new leader in April, Corbyn will relocate “That’s going to be challenging. We Labour – and the country – after such a for 55 years and been in an elected position advisors and the composition of the run – you start to build trust. Then you can here from his office across the road in the haven’t spoken for months.