Poland’s Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told the Today programme that Michael Kaminski is, as far as he knows, not an anti-semite today – though the Jewish leader made clear he “could not read his heart”, and thought Mr Kaminski’s teenage views extremist.
The rabbi’s words will further fuel the spat between David Miliband and William Hague. Expect the Shadow Foreign Secretary to renew his calls today for an apology to be issued to Kaminski. Expect the Foreign Secretary to ignore this and find support, including from within the Jewish community, to his charges against Mr Kaminski and his accusation that the Tories mingle with madmen.
Both parties think the fight is important. Miliband thinks he has stumbled upon political cryptonite to the Tories’ electoral superpowers. Hague is obviously keen not to create the impression the Tories are in associated with extremists. After David Cameron has detoxified the Tory brand, nobody in CCHQ want the word “extremist”, let alone “anti-semite”, to turn up in a Google search of the Conservative Party.
So we will likely see a few more rounds of squabbling.
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