It is one day after Mike Katz, national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, took part in a grand old ceremony in the House of Lords that saw him gain the title of Baron Katz of Fortune Green.
Speaking from a seat in the surprisingly down-to-earth river restaurant frequented by Westminster peers, the 52-year-old Labour stalwart admits he was left “unphased” by the demands of Monday’s introduction ceremony into parliament’s upper chamber.
“Wearing the robes, being told to walk at a certain time, nod your head at a certain time, you know what?” Lord Katz tells Jewish News. “I wasn’t that phased by it.
“I thought this was a bit like davening at shul on Shabbat while wearing a heavy tallit.
“I thought to myself ‘You can do this..You can do this.’”
A long-time West London Synagogue member, invited to address the congregation this coming Shabbat, the newly ennobled
Katz told how how he was stermined to pay respects to both of his departed parents during the short ceremony.
“I was sworn in holding the siddur that my dad had given to my mum,” he revealed of the moment he clutched a bible before swearing allegiance to King Charles and his heirs.
“It’s fair to say mum never made that much use of it, so I’m glad it came in useful eventually! I was thinking of both of them as I was being sworn in.
“I think they would have both been very proud and slightly surprised that their son had just been made a Lord!”
Looking back into his family roots, Katz recalls how “a little over a century ago” his father’s father had arrived “to make a better life in this country” from Bialystok, then in Russia, now part of Poland.
“Three generations later, who would have thought his grandson would be becoming a member of the House of Lords ” he adds, recalling his meeting with a Lords official to agree his new title.
“I was asked by this very nice man ‘We just wanted to check whether any of your family has been ennobled?’
“I thought to myself that in the past some of my family may well have been on the run from Russian nobility!
“When I responded that there had been nobody, he replied: ‘Well in that case, there’s never been any other Lord Katz’s, so you are just Lord Katz’.”
Keir Starmer’s wife Victoria shares a hug with JLM’s Mike Katz
There is a more serious, political observation that Katz now also wants to make. “One thing I can’t deny is my heritage, and I don’t think this is said often enough in the community discourse,” he says.
“Facing facts, given that every Jew was expelled from Britain in the 13th century and then let back in under Cromwell, any Jew here is an immigrant, every Jew is part of the immigration story.
“And so, I think we have a really important story to tell on how you can maintain a cultural identity while assimilating into a society.”
Katz, who became JLM chair at a critical time for every Jewish Labour member as Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party reached its tragic but predictable conclusion in 2019, now has Prime Minister Keir Starmer to thank for his new political home
It’s no secret that since becoming PM, Starmer has been determined to increase the number of Labour peers inside the Lords, where unlike in the Commons, the Tories still have a majority.
An earlier pledge to put an end to the hereditary peerage system has been put on hold, for now.
Baroness Anderson, Mike Katz and Miriam Mirwitch at a JLM Chanukah event (pic Ian Vogler)
It’s also no secret that Starmer remains fiercely loyal to those who supported his rise to the top of the party and have continued to help him during these sometimes shaky first seven months in government.
“Of course, I’m in the Lords to speak up about the dangers of rising antisemitism, and how to go about tackling it, but I’ll also be pushing this government’s policies around transport, housing, and the vital need for this country to achieve infrastructure growth,” he says. “This is a key part of the government agenda.”
After recognizing Starmer’s determination to root out antisemitism during his leadership campaign as he succeeded Corbyn, Katz has remained steadfastly loyal to the leader.
Not just through his role with JLM, but also through his critical position on the London Labour executive committee, influencing the selection of candidates to make sure the failings of the not too distant past in the party are not repeated.
Last July, as Starmer entered Downing Street, the PM and wife Victoria could both be seen paying their respects back to Katz for his support, greeting him among a select group of party loyalists invited outside No.10.
Mike Katz addressing the Labour Party conference 2016
Asked if he would have now preferred to have been one of Starmer’s new MP intake, Katz, who previously served as a Labour councillor in Camden, and who narrowly failed to defeat ex Tory MP Matthew Offord in Hendon in the 2017 general election.
“Even though I might not be able to vote as a Lord, I’ll still be out campaigning, ” he says of his future political activity.
But Katz adds:”I don’t think you should underestimate how hard the job of an MP is these days – the 24-hour news cycle, social media, WhatsApps …
“To do it, and do it well, I think you’ve got to be committed. I think my views on life have changed a bit over the past few years.
“Some of that is due to my activity with JLM, but a lot of it has to do with family – I don’t want to uproot from where we live.
“I am not attempting to downplay what a privilege it now feels to be in the Lords. This is a great way of being able to do it all. I’m just really excited to get cracking.”
(back row left to right) Mike Katz, Ruth Smeeth, Adam Langleben, (front row) Margaret Hodge and Peter Mason, during a press conference by the Jewish Labour Movement at the offices of Mishcon de Reya in London, following the publication of damming anti-Semitism report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
For the time being he says he intends to continue as JLM chair, while also knuckling down to work in the Lords.
Only last weekend, Katz joined other Jewish Labour members to hold antisemitism awareness training at Labour’s Local Government Conference.
It was a weekend that offered further proof that the fight against antisemitism in the party remains a live issue, as openly antisemitic WhatsApp messages from the now-sacked Health Minister Andrew Gwynne were made public by a newspaper.
“Back in 2019 antisemitism was a problem for the Labour Party,” opines Katz. “In 2024 it’s a problem for all of society, and that includes the Labour Party. I’m not surprised that this still can go on.”
But he adds: “The only thing I will say, in all my interaction through JLM with MPs and peers, is that I’ve been heartened by the fact that large numbers of people understand the concern, the fear, the distress, that the Jewish community is living right now.
“They understand how antisemitism is impacting our daily lives. It doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges along the way. But we sometimes feel nobody understands us, nobody cares, and that we are very alone as a minority. I do not think that’s the case at all.”
Following his introduction to the Lords, Katz hosted a small celebration inside one of the function rooms used by peers for family and friends. Baroness Anderson – Ruth Smeeth before her elevation into the Lords, who had fittingly led Katz into the upper chamber that day as his supporter, was in attendance, as were other colleagues from JLM, including former leaders Peter Mason and Adam Langleben.
Angela Rayner at the JLM Chanukah party alongside Mike Katz and Keir Starmer
But what was also noticeable at the drinks ceremony was the presence of a new generation of younger Jewish Labour activists, including councilors Miriam Mirwitch, Rebecca Filer, and Ella Rose-Jacobs, along with staunch allies of the community like Barnet London Assembly member Anne Clarke.
“I think it’s great,” observes Katz. “If there’s one good thing that came out of the Corbyn era, it’s that it was a great recruiting cycle for a whole new generation of young, proud, left-wing, Zionist, Jewish political activists, and allies, within the Labour Party.
“You see it in JLM”s sell-out annual conference, the Chanukah party, I see all the younger faces, and I think this is great. We haven’t just done the job, ticked the boxes, got rid of Corbyn.
“We have got a Prime Minister who is really committed to tackling antisemitism. We have some of our younger members going on to be councilors in Barnet, Camden and elsewhere, and now we are taking groups of Jewish students to Labour conference where they are actively engaging and learning how politics works.
“So you have the next generation already inspiring another generation to become active in Labour.”
With this Katz announces his lunch break must come to an end, as there is work to be done in his own new political home.
Ironically, youth is now also on his side.
