The Conservative leadership candidate has published a plan to target “the woke culture of civil servants drifting into anti-Semitism”. He gave no examples of this, but it is believed to be a reference to councils and their pension funds engaging in Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) policies that include cutting ties with businesses that invest in Israel. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “Every organization has its culture, but it’s not fixed, it can be changed,” he said. “That’s what ministerial leadership is: it’s about making sure that the policies we stand for, the values we stand for, are reflected in what we do.” The government is already legislating to ban BDS policies pursued by public bodies, to ban “boycotts that undermine community cohesion”. Truss also questioned whether schools were doing enough to educate students and teachers about anti-Semitism and claimed she would rid campuses of anti-Jewish hatred. At the same time, she set out her own view of Jewish values, saying: “So many Jewish values are Conservative values and British values, for example seeing the importance of family and always taking steps to protect the family unit. and the value of hard work and starting and building your own business. “The British Jewish community is incredibly proud of this country, and so are the Conservatives.” Truss previously told Conservative Friends of Israel that as prime minister she would review whether to move the UK embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv – following in the footsteps of Donald Trump. A source in her campaign also accused Keir Starmer’s Labor of being a “talk shop for anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism” despite his efforts to fix the party’s problems since becoming leader. Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior public and civil servants, called Truss’ comments about the public service deviating from antisemitism “insulting and despicable”. “The Conservatives have been in government for over 12 years now and, for most of that time, Liz Truss has been a minister. So the accusations of ‘waking up civil servants’ are a bit ironic, given that it is essentially a criticism of their own leadership,” he said. “However, Truss’ accusation of anti-Semitism goes further than the usual whistle-blowing politics that has emerged during this leadership campaign when it comes to public administration. She provides no evidence for her accusation that many public servants will find both offensive and repugnant. “A Prime Minister is also the Minister for Civil Servants, and to make such baseless incendiary accusations shows a lack of leadership, which is exactly what she claims to display.”
