Keir Starmer > UK Parliament, CC BY 3.0
Labour leader Keir Starmer has pledged that a future Labour government would work directly with the Community Security Trust (CST) in a concerted effort to “break the levels” of violent threats, antisemitism and hate crime in the UK.
Speaking during his visit to Berlin last week, where he met with centre-left German chancellor Olaf Scholz, Starmer praised the CST’s work to protect the UK’s Jewish community.
He said that Labour would continue the government’s protective grant awarded to the CST for security provision outside schools, synagogues and other Jewish institutions.
“Of course a Labour government would support the CST”, Starmer told Jewish News, “not just financially either, but in new efforts to break the levels of violent threats and hate crime”.
Starmer’s comments came during a two-day trip to Germany with David Lammy for meetings with the Social Democratic Party-led government to discuss post-Brexit alliances and the war in Ukraine.
He also visited Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, after which he reflected on his commitment to “root out” antisemitism from Labour.
“I made a commitment two years ago, and most people objectively would I think say ‘he’s been good to his word’.”
He added: “We will continue in that vein. All antisemitism and all forms of racism will be rooted out and will be dealt with”.