Ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone Says Wealth Turns British Jews to Right
British Jews increasingly support the country’s Conservative Party because they are richer than they used to be, the former mayor of London said.
Ken Livingstone made the comment Monday on the BBC’s Newsnight program, during a discussion about how ethnic minorities vote.
He said that income, not minority status, determined a person’s voting preference.
“As the Jewish community got richer it moved over to voting for Mrs. Thatcher, as they did in Finchley,” he said, referring to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s representation of the Conservative Party in the strongly Jewish district.
Adrian Cohen, chairman of the London Jewish Forum, criticized Livingstone in a statement to reporters: “It’s pretty obvious that politicians shouldn’t write off parts of the electorate based on crude assumptions about their perceived relative affluence.”
“Many Jews are not rich; indeed many struggle to make ends meet. In any event, there are many factors which influence how a person chooses to vote, and one shouldn’t refer to Jewish Londoners as if they were homogeneous,” he added.
Livingstone made a similar comment while running for mayor of London in 2012. He lost the race to incumbent Boris Johnson, who had succeeded him in the post.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Music Even the Holocaust could not silence the music of these composers
-
Music How Janis Ian’s Jewish heritage inspired some of her greatest hits
-
Music In 1964, when he was just 23, Bob Dylan wrote the prophetic anthem that encapsulates Trump’s America
-
Music At a memorabilia auction, Bob Dylan reunites with another noteworthy Bob — and the unsung women behind their careers
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Fast Forward Jewish Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky reportedly to retire after 26 years in office
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.