In Sunnyside Community Gardens, a tranquil, wooded oasis in Jeremy Corbyn’s north Islington constituency, the former Labour leader is spoken of fondly. A few years ago he helped put the roof on one of the gardens’ buildings and turned up to a party earlier in the year.
Anna Portch, 45, chair of the gardens’ committee, has campaigned for the Greens but holds Corbyn in high regard. “He comes here and he’s just great with everyone. He’s helped people in so many ways.”
“He’s a very friendly guy, talks to everybody,” agrees Jonathan Gilchrist, 53, who has been volunteering at the gardens for six years.
Even those constituents who disagree with his politics say he’s likeable. A few hundred yards from Corbyn’s home, David Charie, 72, is picking up litter outside his house.
“As a man he’s extremely nice,” Charie said, sharing an anecdote of how Corbyn had visited a local school soon after becoming Labour leader – “you wouldn’t get Boris Johnson doing that.” But Charie said he had concerns about Corbyn’s politics, not least his stance on the IRA. “And this antisemitism thing doesn’t seem to be going away.”
Indeed, it is the antisemitism thing that is splitting Corbyn into two discrete almost contradictory characters. To those who do not pay it much attention, he remains popular. To those who do, his actions have been unconscionable.
Anna (not her real name) – who describes herself as “Jewish, until recently in a semi-detached way” – has lived in Corbyn’s constituency for decades and is wary of speaking out because of how her Corbyn-supporting neighbours will react.
“I follow politics pretty closely and was familiar with his schtick: I was never a fan, but as long as he was an unimportant backbencher I didn’t waste energy on him and voted on national lines.
“About 10 years ago I noticed that his faction was becoming more toxic and by the time he was leading the leadership race in 2015, I was warning my friends to take care.
“The five years since he won have been painful. I wanted an effective opposition to the government, who could win power, and knew that he wouldn’t provide that. When I received rants about the ‘mainstream media’ brainwashing us against him, I said: ‘But I was there, I heard him say all those things in real time, before the national media cared. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now.’”
Corbyn’s rise to national prominence has led to Anna developing what she describes as a “wariness” when encountering others.
“I felt sick walking down the road, seeing Corbyn posters in the windows last December, knowing that some of them were enthusiastic canvassers for the man, not just the party.
“They saw the dangers on one side of politics but not on their own side. They did not see the dangers, not just to Jews but to all of us.”
Addressing this failure will be crucial in what Mike Katz, the national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), tells the Observer is the “long road” that Labour now faces in rebuilding trust among Jewish voters.
“People who left will think long and hard about whether they feel able to rejoin. I think some who were active in the party may well come back, but that’s separate from rebuilding trust with the Jewish community. We’re at the beginning of a long road,” he said.
In recent months there have been signs of a tentative rapprochement. Three Jewish peers – including Lord Triesman, a former party general secretary who resigned from Labour over antisemitism – announced in June they were rejoining in response to Keir Starmer’s leadership on the issue.
Last month, Sir David Garrard, a wealthy donor who quit the party in 2018, told the Observer he would “almost happily rejoin” if Starmer effectively tackled antisemitism.
And Laura Janner-Klausner, a north London rabbi who has remained in the party throughout the crisis, said she believed former members and supporters would “definitely” return.
“People will be extremely heartened by Starmer’s response to Jeremy Corbyn’s comments. The natural place for Jews is always the Labour party, whose key values are the same as Jewish values,” she said.
Dena Ryness, a Stockport councillor and chair of the JLM in the northwest of England, warned that the feeling of many Jewish members and supporters “that they weren’t listened to won’t disappear overnight. People need to have their anxieties allayed and see action taken.
“There’s still a long way to go. This is not just about processes, but about culture – and that won’t change overnight.”
