A recent poll from the Jewish Chronicle found that 40% of British Jewry would “seriously consider” leaving the country if Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn ever becomes Britain’s prime minister.
The poll surveyed 710 Jews in Britain from Aug. 12-Sep. 4; 38.55 percent of the respondents said they would “seriously consider emigrating” if Corbyn became prime minister, while 51.71 percent said they would not. An additional 9.74% said they didn’t know.
The demographic most likely to leave Great Britain would be the 35-54-year-old age range, as 50.96% of the respondents in that age range said they would “seriously consider” leaving Britain if Corbyn became prime minister; the demographic least likely to leave would be respondents in the 18-34-year-old age range, as 28.51 percent of respondents in that category said they would seriously consider leaving.
The Jewish Chronicle report noted that the 38.55 percent figure as a massive uptick from 11 percent in January 2015, shortly after an Islamic terrorist murdered four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris.
Jewish Leadership Council chair Jonathan Goldstein told the Chronicle that the poll results were “deeply worrying.”
“Our community is open, confident and proud of our traditions, while at the same time also being proud how we are integrated across society and public life,” Goldstein said. “The current difficulties with the Labour leadership serve as a sharp reminder that our values and our people have often needed defending.”
Corbyn and his Labour Party have been mired in accusations of anti-Semitism in recent weeks, which includes unearthed photos of Corbyn laying a wreath at the graves of the 1972 Munich terrorists in 2014 and in 2013 stating that Zionists didn’t understand “English irony.”
The Labour Party recently adopted the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, although with the caveat that they supported freedom of speech to criticize Israel, which some Jewish groups thought was unnecessary. Corbyn also attempted to insert language stating that calling Israel’s “policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist” isn’t anti-Semitic, but the Labour Party rebuffed him.
