Labour is “complicit” in abuse towards the Jewish community, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel has said.
Speaking at a Conservative Friends of Israel event at the Tory party conference in Manchester, Dame Priti claimed Labour had “lost any moral purpose”.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel had earlier said that Labour’s recognition of the state of Palestine was a “grotesque betrayal of truth, of justice and of Britain’s Jewish community”.
She also claimed that uncontrolled immigration had led to the “importing of the demonisation of Jews”.
Dame Priti told Conservative Party members on Sunday evening: “These are shocking and difficult times for the Jewish community, and made all the worse by Labour’s dreadful decisions, which have actively undermined our relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel.
“And in doing so, Keir Starmer has damaged our national interests and made it harder for Britain to help chart that course towards a sustainable end to this terrible conflict and bring peace to the region.
“And while Labour have indulged in gesture politics, and Keir Starmer has allowed his left-wing backbenchers and trade union campaigners to dictate British foreign policy, it’s the Conservative Party that stands with Israel against such weakness in the face of terrorism.”
Amid shouts of “shame on Starmer”, Dame Priti added: “Labour is supporting a Palestinian Authority which still continues with this pay-to-slay policy, a policy which provides financial payments to the families of those who attack Israel and are killed or detained.
“They have lost any moral purpose whatsoever. Labour is complicit in the appalling abuse we see across our streets and across Britain’s Jewish community.”
Ms Haskel accused the Labour Government of betraying British Jews.
She said: “They (Labour) choose to recognise a Palestinian state less than two years after Hamas carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
“This was not a step towards peace, it was a grotesque betrayal of truth, of justice and of Britain’s Jewish community.
“It was a betrayal of truth because it rewarded Hamas, the terror regime that murders civilians and still holds 48 hostages in dungeons of terror.
“It was a betrayal of justice, because it tells the families of the murdered and the kidnapped that their suffering can be brushed aside for political convenience.
“And it was a betrayal of Britain’s own Jews, because it echoes the dangerous message that Jewish security is negotiable, that appeasing extremism matters more than defending morality.”
Ms Haskel added: “Britain is being changed, and not always for the better.
“Out of control immigration, particularly from Islamist communities hostile to your values, is reshaping your society.
“It is fuelling antisemitism on your streets. It is straining your social cohesion.
“It is importing the demonisation of Jews and the hatred of the Middle East into British cities.
“We saw it in the marches calling for Israel’s destruction. We saw it in the intimidation of Jewish students and Jewish families, and we saw it in the way some in Labour rushed to appease those crowds rather than confront them.
“Israel knows the struggle when we live with it daily. But we have learned a harsh truth: you cannot appease extremism, you must confront it, because once extremism believes they can dictate your politics, they will not stop until they control it you.”
Hosting the event was Lord Eric Pickles, the UK’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, who said: “The problem that we have is that politicians are really good at feeling sorry for dead Jews, but they’re not so good at looking after live ones.”
Labour has been contacted for comment.
