SCoJeC was delighted to join the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council to host a hustings meeting for the Jewish Community, and to launch our joint manifesto for the forthcoming General Election.

East Renfrewshire is a three-way marginal, having been won by Conservatives, Labour, and SNP in the last 15 years, and it is the only constituency in Scotland with a large enough local Jewish community to affect the outcome.  The meeting was addressed by the candidates of these three parties – outgoing MP Kirsten Oswald of the SNP, Blair McDougall of the Scottish Labour Party, and Sandesh Gulhane of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. We were delighted to see former MP Jim Murphy of Labour and Jackson Carlaw MSP of the Conservatives as well as several local councillors in the audience and mingling with other members of the community over refreshments after the meeting.

The candidates each gave a short opening statement and then answered questions that had been requested in advance.  These covered a wide range of issues that are of concern to Jewish people in Scotland and the UK, although there was a noticeable emphasis on the recent surge in antisemitism and the war in the Middle East, with questions about the IHRA definition of antisemitism; recognising a Palestinian state, suspending arms sales to Israel, and the relationship between Britain and Israel; and how to promote Holocaust remembrance in Parliament.  Other topics included whether Scotland should have increased control over immigration; whether there should be common hate crime law across all of the UK in order to make it possible to identify and tackle patterns, and trends; candidates' views of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill; how to improve the NHS and GP services in particular; and how the parties would pay for the policies in their manifestos.  Discussion became a bit more personal when candidates were asked what made them want to stand for Parliament.

Giffnock Newton Mearns shul, most of whose members live in the constituency, provided its function suite for the event, which was chaired by Timothy Lovat, President of the Glasgow Rep Council and Vice-Chair of SCoJeC.  Following the meeting, Timothy Lovat commented that he was very grateful to all the candidates and members of the audience for engaging with such a wide range of topics that are relevant to Jewish people in Scotland is such a reasonable and good-humoured way.

The full list of candidates for the East Renfrewshire constituency is Matt Alexander (Reform UK), Alan Grant (Liberal Democrats), Sandesh Gulhane (Conservative), Blair McDougall (Labour), Kirsten Oswald (SNP), Maria Reid (Scottish Family Party), Karen Sharkey (Scottish Green Party), Allan Steele (The Liberal Party), and Colette Walker (Independence for Scotland Party).