British Jewish support for the Labour Party has increased dramatically since Keir Starmer took control of the party, rising to be slightly higher in support than the general population ahead of the July 4 election, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found in a survey Tuesday.
In what the JPR said was the largest-ever UK Jewish voting intentions survey, 45.8% of Jewish voters are set to vote for Labour compared to 41.9% in national election polling.
This support for Labour represents a significant departure from the 2019 election when Jeremy Corbyn led the party. In 2019, 11% of Jews said they had voted for Labour, with the election of Starmer in 2020 leading to a 22% increase.
Labour-Tory split
The rise in Jewish support for Labour, according to JPR, corresponded with a decline in support for the Conservative Party’s internal turmoil as Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and finally Rishi Sunak became prime minister.
Despite the fall in support for Tories from 61% to 29% for UK Jews, backing for the Conservatives is still higher than the 22.2% of the general population in 2024.
Support for the Liberal Democrats has also fallen markedly from 22% to 8% among Jews since 2019, according to the survey, with the general population indicating 10.9% support. British Jews were, however, more supportive of the Green party with 9.9% support, compared to the general populace’s 5.8%.
The general population is also more likely to support Reform UK with 15% compared to the Jewish 6%. JPR said that there were about the same amount of right-leaning Jews as other British subjects, but Reform UK had not managed to split the right-wing vote. British Jews are set to vote primarily for the major two parties, Labour and Conservative.
This dynamic altered with age, with younger Jews much more open to voting for other parties.
Synagogue denomination was a major factor in the differences shown for voting intentions. Strictly Orthodox and Mainstream Orthodox Jews were more likely to vote Conservative than Labour, 65.5% to 15.2% and 52.5% to 28.6%, respectively.
There were 59.6% of Progressive Jews who intended to vote for Labour, and only 18.1% for Conservative, while 51.4% of Jews with no affiliation were set on voting for Labour. Only 14.2% of Jews with no affiliation wished to vote Tory but were much more likely to vote for other parties, with over a quarter voting for smaller political movements.
JPR recruited a sample of 2,717 people in the UK who identified as Jewish through emails to community Jewish organizations, referrals from participants, and marketing campaigns.
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