Elliot Franks Photography
On Monday evening, CFI hosted hustings with Rt. Hon. Kemi Badenoch MP and Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP and as many as 300 Conservative activists in person and online.
The leadership candidates underlined their support for Israel and outlined their visions for the future of the Conservative Party, in separate Q&A sessions chaired by CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE.
Both candidates expressed concerns about the Labour Government’s policies on Israel, with Mr Jenrick stating that the government “is not a friend of Israel” and that policies including restoring funding to UNRWA and suspending arms export licenses “hurt our relationship with Israel”.
Ms Badenoch said that Labour “will always bow to the mob”: “You look at the decision that they made not just on arms licenses. You look at the decision that they made with the UNRWA. You look at the decision they made with the ICC. This is a very ideological Labour Government. This is not Tony Blair’s Labour Government. This is Old Labour with remnants of Corbynism that are very, very bad for this country”.
She added that Labour’s decision to suspend arms exports to Israel was a “gimmick”. “I saw that legal advice”, she said, “and I knew that it did not meet the threshold for the action that they took”. Mr Jenrick said the arms embargo was put in place for a “purely synthetic, superficial reason”.
Questioned about the increasingly hostile anti-Israel marches in central London and the concerns many Jewish people have for their safety, Mr Jenrick said: “A Britain without its Jewish community is not Britain, and so it is incumbent on all of us, whatever our faith, to defend the British Jewish community and to ensure that each and every member of feels safe on our streets”.
He added: “For my part, I have tried to urge the police consistently to take action… I urged the Metropolitan Commissioner to take action when the police failed to arrest somebody, to arrest someone who shouted jihad in Oxford Street, when genocidal chants were broadcast onto Big Ben. I was criticised earlier in the summer for saying that if you shout in an intimidatory manner in our streets, the law should be enforced. We need to ensure the police are enforcing our existing laws without fear or favour”.
Ms Badenoch said that the Hamas atrocities of 7th October against Israel were “a stain on the world”. She emphasised: “It is not just Israel’s fight. It is the world’s fight. It is a fight of good versus evil. It is not just politics”.
She continued: “I see in Israel a moral clarity that is lacking in many other parts of the world. I see a moral courage that many of us should emulate. I look at the achievements of so many brilliant Jewish people in many countries around the world, and they are an inspiration to people in other parts of the world. However much the media and certain wings of the commentariat want to disagree. I think Israel is special, and that is why I have always been a supporter of Israel for at least 20 years, right back from my 20s”.
“Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East”, she said, “and it is under attack from all sides”.
Elliott Franks Photography
Discussing his involvement in the proscription of the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups, Mr Jenrick said that “the next battle is obviously the IRGC”. He emphasised: “We should proscribe the IRGC, and… say very clearly that terrorists are terrorists”.
Mr Jenrick said that “we have to be relentless in pushing universities to take seriously the care and the concerns that we have for Jewish students on campus”. He said he is “appalled” that Jewish students are feeling “unwelcome on campus”.
He discussed his role in “taking forward new legislation to stop the boycott of Israel by all of our public institutions, by taking forward the Holocaust Memorial that we’re trying to build outside Parliament, which has been a long road, I have to say, but we are slowly getting there, I hope”. Mr Jenrick added: “Each of these are small but important ways in which we can fight this battle, take on public institutions, raise awareness, ensure that we’re fighting antisemitism wherever we see it”.
Watch the hustings in full on CFI’s Youtube channel or below.
