When David Lammy talks about growing up in North London, home of one of the city’s largest Jewish communities, he recalls with genuine fondness the way British Jews embraced his father – who arrived in the U.K. from Guyana – and his own strong relationship both personally and professionally with Jewish people.

Now those ties could be put to the test, if the Labour Party wins the upcoming July 4 general election, and the long-serving British lawmaker is appointed by party leader Keir Starmer to become the country’s next foreign secretary.

Since 2021, Lammy, 51, has been serving as the shadow foreign secretary in Starmer’s opposition cabinet and throughout his two decades in Britain’s parliament he has shown strong support for Israel through the advocacy group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), as well as visiting the country a handful of times, most recently in early November just weeks after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attacks and the start of the ensuing war in Gaza.

In a speech at the LFI’s annual lunch last November, following his return from Israel, Lammy described how his father, who arrived in the U.K. as part of the so-called Windrush Generation following World War II, found a place among the Jewish community after other rental apartments were advertised as “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs.” 

“It wasn’t easy to find somewhere to live, except in North London where the doors of Jewish homes were always open, where the landlords were generous and not racist,” Lammy described. “And that’s why, talking of that time my father would always say, ‘Thank God for the Jews.’”

Lammy used his speech to talk about his own experience with the Jewish community, highlighting that a Jewish-owned law firm provided him with the financial backing that enabled him to study at Harvard Law School and – in his words – become “the first Black Brit to study there.”

“Without you, I would never have made it to where I am today,” Lammy said, addressing the representatives of that law firm who were present at the luncheon.

“I’ve heard him talk about his study at Harvard privately, but I think that was the first time he spoke about it publicly and what was so incredible was that we had arranged for three of the partners from the law firm to be there,” Michael Rubin, director of LFI, told Jewish Insider. “You could see that it was an emotional moment for all of them, and I think he really feels gratitude towards the Jewish community very, very personally.”

While Lammy declined to be interviewed for this article, JI spoke to multiple people personally familiar with the British MP about his relationship with the Jewish community and his approach to Israel. Most highlighted the deep ties he has with British Jewry, particularly in the close-knit Haredi community that lives within his constituency of Tottenham, and his efforts, alongside Starmer, to rid the Labour party of antisemitic and other extremist voices emboldened by the party’s previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

On Israel and its current war against Hamas in Gaza, which has sparked massive protests across the U.K., Lammy’s approach appears aligned with Starmer’s, echoing closely the party’s election manifesto on the topic, although he has been more explicit in his backing for the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, recently announced that he would seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Lammy reiterated his approach to the world’s top court if it does indeed issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying, “in the Labour Party we believe in the rules-based order. We believe in international law.”

UK Labour's shadow foreign secretary David Lammy says they would enforce an #ICC arrest warrant against @netanyahu if issued. pic.twitter.com/fCifEcFFco

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) June 24, 2024

“I have to comply with that, if an order is issued,” Lammy told Zakaria of the controversial step. “That is an ‘if.’ Let us see where we get to down the line.”

Despite Lammy’s views on the ICC, which both the U.S. and Israel have said is not a fair arbitrator of international law in this case, Labour has more or less followed the same trajectory as the Biden administration in its approach to the eight-month-long war. 

Like Biden, Labour and its leaders began with deep empathy for Israel after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, before moving to calls for humanitarian pauses and cautionary warnings to Israel about Palestinian civilian casualties ahead of its military operation in Rafah. More recently, Lammy and other party leaders have been calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and have said they would take steps to recognize a Palestinian state if they take power. 

However, both positions – the cease-fire and Palestinian state recognition – come with caveats, such as demanding that Hamas first take steps towards releasing Israeli hostages and ending the war; and adding that the commitment to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians would be part of a peace process that includes ensuring Israel’s long-term security.

“I think the Labour position – and the British government one – has closely followed the Biden one,” Rubin told JI. “Though there are some differences such as on the ICC, if you see at various points where their position has shifted, it’s quite often followed a shift by the Biden administration.”

He said that he believed Labour – and Lammy’s – commitment to Israel to be strong and genuine.

“I was at the Labour Party conference in the days following Oct. 7 and we had the LFI reception, an event we do every year, and we turned it into a vigil and David Lammy spoke, alongside Keir Starmer and others,” Rubin said.

“There has been [public] pressure and its position has evolved with time, but if you look at it as a whole, it’s been fairly aligned with the Biden administration,” Rubin added. “Considering where the party was five years ago, that is real progress.”

“I feel confident that a Labour government will continue the tradition that the Labour Party had prior to Jeremy Corbyn of strong and consistent support for the State of Israel,” he continued.

“Previous Labour prime ministers — Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Harold Wilson — were some of some of Israel’s biggest friends, and I think under Keir Starmer, the Labour Party has returned to its traditional position of support for the Jewish state,” said Rubin.

Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Antisemitism, agreed that the party has seen a significant change in terms of tackling antisemitism since Starmer took over in 2020, but said it’s been difficult to pin down Labour and Lammy’s true position on Israel since the war in Gaza started.

“For Labour, there seems to be constructive ambiguity around its position,” Hearn noted, observing that as an opposition party vying to overthrow the incumbents, it was natural that they try to appeal to a broad audience as a way to court more votes.

“I’ve found that what Labour tried to do on difficult issues is to appeal to everyone, even if they have wildly different opinions, and I don’t know how that will play out,” he continued.

Lammy, Hearn said, has reflected his party’s ambiguity.

When protests erupted a few years ago over the rise of antisemitic voices in the party, Lammy was present and spoke out, yet he was also among the Labour members who enabled Corbyn’s rise to the top of the party and “has spoken about him positively,” Hearn pointed out.

“His conduct as shadow foreign secretary also has some concerning elements, although that’s not necessarily indicative of what Labour will do when it’s in government,” he added, citing Lammy’s support for the controversial Palestinian aid agency UNRWA and knee-jerk reactions to unconfirmed news reports coming out of Gaza.

“It could be worse,” Hearn continued. “But it doesn’t feel like this is his best position and perhaps someone else is better suited to it – on the other hand, someone else could well be worse.”

U.K.-based journalist Nicole Lampert, who has been following the election race closely – particularly as it relates to the Jewish community and Israel – told JI that Lammy is “seen by some as a lightweight” who “blows with the wind, just like a lot like the Labour MPs.”

Lampert also highlighted that Lammy was among those who helped to get Corbyn appointed as leader, even though he, himself, had risen up through the right flank of the party, in Blair-esque tradition.

While Lammy participated in the demonstrations against Corbyn, Lampert pointed out that at a certain point “he vanished because it wasn’t politically right for him to be standing up to Corbyn, so he didn’t,” she said, adding, “Now that Starmer is in power, he [Lammy] is swinging back towards the right, so he kind of goes with the wind.”

On Israel, Lampert said, “We’ve seen him both stand up for Israel but also demand an immediate cease-fire … but then it’s not really an immediate cease-fire because he also said that Hamas has to agree to it and release the hostages.”

According to one prominent British Jewish leader — who asked to remain anonymous out of sensitivities surrounding the election — Labour and Lammy, if the latter is appointed to the foreign secretary position, will likely hold a similar approach to Israel as the current U.K. government and its foreign secretary, former Prime Minister David Cameron.

“He has an authentic warmth towards the Jewish community and there is no hint of antisemitism,” the leader said, describing Lammy as “warm, friendly, engaging and smart.”

“Frankly, he’ll be quite like Cameron, but may be slightly more critical and a little bit sharper on Israel than we would like,” the leader said.

Although it is not definite that Lammy will be appointed foreign secretary – depending on how successful Starmer is in the election, he could decide someone else is better suited – there is still likely to be differences between a Labour government and the far-right government of Netanyahu, which has often clashed with the Democratic leadership in the U.S.

“Netanyahu’s government is likely to remain in power and we’ll have to see how open and amiable they’ll be to having a connection with the new British government,” said Richard Pater, director of BICOM, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, explaining that there are no expectations that a Labour government in the U.K. will “be Likudniks or Bibi lovers.”

“The question is also how much they [the new British government] will make a distinction between the Israeli government and the supreme strategic interest of Israel as a state, which still has aligned values,” Pater said.