Jewish figures criticise Tories’ ‘stigmatising’ attack on time with Starmer’s family | General election 2024

Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of desperate tactics. He was accused of the Tories’ criticism of his advocacy of family time being insensitive and containing anti-Semitic undertones.

As Rishi Sunak embarked on a marathon day of campaigning that began with a dawn visit to a distribution centre and ended with a late-night rally, Conservative ministers and staff sought to contrast those efforts with what they described as Starmer’s “part-time approach”.

As an increasingly personal election campaign drew to a close, the Conservatives issued “final warnings” about what they believed a massive Labour majority would mean for tax, migration and other policies.

Downing Street officials believe criticism of Starmer’s statement that he would maintain his current habit of spending time with his wife and children after 6pm on Fridays “no matter what happens” has resonated with voters.

But the incident sparked angry reactions, with senior Jewish figures saying the decision to target such a culturally significant time of the week – Starmer’s wife Victoria comes from a Jewish family – was ill-considered and deeply unfair.

“I would have thought it would be perfectly obvious to everyone that Friday night plays a pretty important role in some religions and faiths,” Starmer told reporters during a campaign stop in Derbyshire.

The Labour leader called the attacks “ridiculously pathetic” and said his comments in a radio interview the previous day were simply to highlight how he tries to keep Friday nights free for his family and would do so if elected prime minister. He added: “But I know full well that that will be really difficult.”

Starmer said the aim was to create “protected time” for his children, his wife and her father. “Of course, her father’s family is Jewish, as people will understand, and we use that for family prayers – not every Friday, but not infrequently.”

“Of course, that doesn’t mean that I never had to work on Fridays. Often I wasn’t able to, but I try to keep that time free and I want to continue to do so in the future.”

After spotting a reaction to the comments on social media, Conservative campaign organisers joined in the false claim that Starmer had said he would not work any evenings.

“It’s after 6pm, so of course Angela Rayner is in charge again,” said the party’s official account on X. Energy Minister Claire Coutinho said: “I think it’s pretty unrealistic for a prime minister to stop working after 6pm.”

These comments led to warnings from senior Jewish figures that it was risky to expose someone who was trying to observe the tradition of spending time with family on Friday night.

Marie van der Zyl, chair of the Board of Deputies of British Jews until the beginning of the year, described the attacks as “horribly stigmatising”.

“It is truly a holy time for Jews of all faiths and their families and I think we should recognise that here is someone who values ​​and traditions,” said Van der Zyl, who recently joined the Labour Party.

“He is setting a good example and the fact that this is now being criticized is, in my opinion, completely unfair.”

John Mann, a former Labour MP and current peer and independent adviser to the government on anti-Semitism, described the Conservatives’ attacks as “dangerous” and pointed out that Parliament does not meet on Sundays due to Christian traditions.

He said: “It is a very strange attack. I am the Prime Minister’s independent adviser and my advice is not to get involved in this area.”

The newspaper’s former editor, Stephen Pollard, described the Conservatives’ line of attack in an article in the Jewish Chronicle as “childish, pathetic and degrading to all concerned”.

With Starmer and Sunak both facing the long final days of their campaign trail, opinion polls have shown Labour’s lead narrowing slightly to 19 percentage points, still high enough to give Starmer’s party a comfortable majority.

According to a Redfield and Wilton poll of more than 20,000 voters, Labour is on 41 percent, the polling firm’s lowest result since Boris Johnson was in 10 Downing Street. The Conservatives were on 22 percent, six percentage points ahead of Reform UK.

Labour’s lead in the polls has barely changed since the campaign began, and projected constituency polls predict Labour’s majority at around 150 seats. The Tories’ final message largely implicitly acknowledges defeat and attempts to limit the damage with warnings of a Labour “supermajority”.

A Tories campaign video posted on social media and emailed to supporters shows a fictional voter in July 2025 struggling with power cuts, unpayable bills and closed schools. It ends with the message: “48 hours to prevent an overwhelming Labour majority.”

Conservative campaign managers reject the notion that the strategy was concocted on the spot, saying it was prepared well in advance in case the polls were not closer.

On Sunak’s penultimate day of campaigning, the focus was on constituencies that would normally be a safe bet for the Conservatives, and so he made an early morning visit to a supermarket in Witney, Oxfordshire, David Cameron’s former constituency.

This seat was held by the Tories in 2019 with a majority of over 15,000 votes and is now under threat from the Liberal Democrats, who have stepped up their campaigning in these constituencies in recent days.

Speaking to reporters, Sunak supported the attack on Starmer’s alleged work ethic, albeit without much enthusiasm. “Everyone approaches this job differently, in my experience there is always work to be done,” he said. “There are always decisions to be made.”

Asked whether it was right for Defence Secretary Grant Shapps to suggest Starmer could rest when urgent military decisions needed to be made, Sunak said: “I am concerned about the security of our country because there are deep concerns. This is the most dangerous time our country has experienced for decades.”