Robert Halfon is a former UK government minister and MP
A lot has changed since the last election — Covid, inflation exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and a series of self-inflicted errors by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his successors Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Simultaneously, Labour leader Keir Starmer has successfully rehabilitated his party, purged the Corbynite left, wooed businesses, and capitalized on the Tories’ record of economic stagnation and instability to present Labour as the party of economic growth and functioning public services.
Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing Reform party is neck-in-neck with the Conservatives and attracting many of their Northern voters. Meanwhile, the center-left Liberal Democrats are targeting prosperous Southern and Western England, squeezing the Conservatives from three directions.
As the once-mighty party fights for its survival, how has it come to this pitiable state? Can it be saved? Which policies and which leadership are their best bets for returning to government? And importantly for the Jewish community, with tensions in the Labour-voting Muslim community roiling since October 7, has Labour really been detoxified enough to run the country safely?
Former Conservative MP Robert Halfon represented a parliamentary seat that has swung the way of the victorious party since 1983, and is a longstanding champion of blue-collar conservatism. Of Jewish descent, he was chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, one of the most active back-bench MPs, and served twice as education minister. As he retires from front-line politics, he shares his views on the future of his party, the country, Israel and anti-Semitism — at a time when British Jewry is feeling increasingly threatened by the pro-Palestinian movement.
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