Kemi responds to the Guardian's article on North London restaurant wars

Kemi Badenoch has described a Guardian newspaper column that suggested the presence of a Jewish-founded Gail’s bakery close to a Palestinian cafe was “heavy-handed high street aggression” as “a cover for disgusting antisemitism.”

Speaking to Jewish News as she joined party activists to campaign in Golders Green ahead of May’s local elections, the Conservative Party leader condemned the column in the strongest terms. “I think it was an utterly ridiculous column … appalling, actually,” Badenoch said.

“What it was insinuating, in my view, was based on antisemitism. We are a country where it hasn’t mattered where you’ve come from… we have always been open and tolerant. I think this openness and tolerance of our society is being exploited, and is targeting Jewish people.

“It’s extraordinary that Gail’s bakeries are being attacked now, supposedly because they are Israeli-owned. This is just a cover; it’s antisemitism. It is disgusting. We need to stamp out this culture. We need more enforcement, more punishment for people who carry out these violent acts… they are trying to intimidate people.”

Referring to a UJS survey of anti-Jewish racism on University campuses, she added,

“I’m very worried about this,” she said. “This was not what things were like 20-25 years ago when I was at university. It would have been unconscionable for people to even express these views.

“I think this goes beyond some of the things which we’ve traditionally done – banning things here and there, and proscribing groups.

“This is a culture that is seeping into the general population, and that actually means government talking about the sorts of things that it hasn’t traditionally talked about.

“I gave a speech a couple of weeks ago on this issue, talking about rising separatism. We cannot afford for communities to be withdrawing into separate groups. I think that there are certain ideas that have come from cultures where these attitudes are typical, which have taken hold, and they have found fertile soil in a very old, sort of almost forgotten antisemitic way.”

She added:

“People know where I stand – 100 percent behind the Jewish community. I do think that we need to do more in government. We’re mostly focused on terrorism and Islamist extremism. I think that more now needs to be done on draining the swamp.”

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