Lord Mandelson walks out of synagogue event after Labour anti-Semitism row

Lord Mandelson left a synagogue event early on Sunday night after a row broke out over Labour’s anti-Semitism problem.

It came after Sir Keir Starmer’s record was criticised during an event at the Hampstead Synagogue in north-west London.

The awkward scenes unfolded at the annual Isaiah Berlin lecture following a speech by the historian and author Sir Anthony Seldon titled: “Has the job of prime minister become impossible?”

The life peer, 70, who acted as Sir Tony Blair’s “spin doctor” and was nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness” during the New Labour years, was in the 250-strong mainly Jewish audience alongside fellow dignitaries including Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece.

Lord Mandelson’s father’s family were Jewish and his grandfather founded the United Synagogue in Harrow.

Harassment and discrimination

During a heated question-and-answer session, the journalist Daniel Johnson, who edits The Article website, questioned whether Sir Keir had done enough to detoxify his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy.

The former Labour leader was suspended by the party in October 2020 after a highly critical report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found Labour responsible for “unlawful” harassment and discrimination during his four-and-a-half-year tenure.

Sir Keir described the watchdog’s findings as a “day of shame” for Labour, but Mr Corbyn suggested the scale of anti-Semitism within the party had been “dramatically overstated” by opponents, causing him to be stripped of the Labour whip.

“Anti-Semitism hasn’t been a factor in British politics really since the 1930s,” Mr Johnson said. “But it now very much is, and Keir Starmer told us that he’d sorted out this problem in the Labour Party.

“But it’s very obvious that he has not. So what do you think about that? I mean, he will undoubtedly win the next election. But I think many people in this room will feel very uncomfortable about voting for a party that is still clearly mired…”

Before Sir Anthony could answer, Lord Mandelson, who was seated on the front row, interjected: “Oh that’s disgraceful. It’s disgraceful to say that.”

Mr Johnson replied: “Well, it’s true – look at Rochdale”, in a reference to Labour having to suspend Azhar Ali, its by-election candidate, after he made a series of anti-Semitic remarks.

‘A really nasty smear’

Asked by Sir Anthony what more Sir Keir would have to do “to prove to you that he isn’t Jeremy Corbyn and that he’s really got on top of this disease of anti-Semitism”, Mr Johnson replied: “Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair were all very obviously philo-Semitic people who were strong defenders of Israel. Has Keir Starmer done that?”

Reacting furiously, Lord Mandelson shouted: “It’s a nasty smear, a really nasty smear; I’m ashamed of you.” Some members of the audience applauded but others stayed silent.

Mr Johnson responded: “You were investigated by the EHRC – no other political party has ever had that before,” to which Lord Mandelson asked Mr Johnson: “Do you not have any sense of knowledge or decency, Daniel? What do you think he’s done since that report?”

He then left the event shortly afterwards, before the question-and-answer session had ended.

Behind-the-scenes role

Lord Mandelson, who was one of Sir Tony’s closest allies, does not have an official role in Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet but is understood to have been advising the Labour leader behind the scenes since 2021.

He was in the front row for Sir Keir’s speech at last October’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool. There have reportedly been tensions between some of the Blairites advising the Labour leader and Sue Gray, Sir Keir’s chief of staff.

Mr Johnson, who is a Catholic, covered the fall of the Berlin Wall as the German correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and was the literary and associate editor of The Times. In 2008, he launched Standpoint magazine.

The Isaiah Berlin lecture, founded in memory of the Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian, who died in 1997, is now in its 21st year.