When I sat down with Sir Keir Starmer this week we had unfinished business to discuss. Foremost in my mind was the central political question in Jewish circles these days, particularly on the left: is it safe to vote Labour again? To answer this, I had to ask him about Jeremy Corbyn.
When it comes to his predecessor, Sir Keir has painted himself into a bit of a corner. As part of his attempt to ‘tear anti-Semitism out by the roots’ in his party, he has stripped Corbyn of the whip and apologised to the Jewish community. But the fact remains that between 2015 and 2019, he tried his best to put Corbyn in Number 10. In an interview with Andrew Marr in 2019, for instance, he said:
‘I’m 100 per cent behind Jeremy Corbyn. I am working with Jeremy Corbyn to try to win the next general election. I think it is critical.
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