The following address was given by Louise Ellman MP at the Rep Council AGM

In Parliament I try to be involved in matters to do with the Jewish Community. As an MP I try to support refugees and people seeking asylum and in Liverpool there are a lot of people coming from countries around the world fleeing from the most terrible situations. I always do my best to try and help these people and have their cases heard. One of the greatest pleasures I have is when I meet people who were persecuted very badly and whom I have helped to get permission to stay in this country.

I chair an all-party group to do with the Baha’is who are a religious group many of whom have been very badly persecuted and I first came across them on a visit to Israel.

In Parliament there are MPs who are supporters of Labour of Friends of Israel, Conservative Friends of Israel and I believe there are Lib Dems Friends of Israel and an All Party Friends of Israel. Next week I hope to attend a meeting with Matthew Gould, who is the British Ambassador to Israel.

I attend meetings of an all-party group combatting antisemitism, chaired by John Mann MP, and this has been doing excellent work. The last meeting was attended by Chief Rabbi Mirvis who spoke to the committee about antisemitism and made a very good impression. He also referred to the general context of Jewish life in this country and that there were concerns about antisemitism.

I also attended the celebrations for Israel Independence Day at which Uri Geller was present.

The work of the all-party committee on antisemitism has been very important. In 2005 they set up a national inquiry working closely with the Jewish Community to look at antisemitism in the UK and came up with a number of specific recommendations, most of which have now been followed up. They involved prosecuting people for antisemitic actions and statements, looking at security in Jewish schools and issues to do with teaching training about antisemitism. More recently they have been working on the way elections are conducted and frequently at local elections there has been some dreadful antisemitic abuse taking place towards candidates, and that committee has now come up with a code of practice which is going to be accepted by the electoral authorities and make it much more difficult for antisemitic abuse to be used during General Elections.

I urge people to vote in the forthcoming European Elections in order to stop being represented by the British National Party.

What are the challenges?
The issues between Israelis and Palestinians. If the present peace talks collapse, I think there could be a renewal of the hostility towards Israel.
Other areas are to do with Kashrut, Shechita and Brit Milah.

Parliament is a busy place and I think it is important that people know things that happen in relation to Jewish matters. The committees which I have mentioned – the Friends of Israel from the different political parties, the All Party Committee Against Antisemitism are committees are headed mainly by people who are not Jewish and in fact there are not many Jewish Members of Parliament and those who are not always involved in these activities, and it matters a great deal that Jewish communities and representative councils are engaged in all of these issues. Certainly I am very appreciative of the work that you have done here. These challenges and issues are going to continue and it is increasingly important that people in Parliament are in a position to influence events and to take decisions.