Simon Sebag Montefiore suggests he’ll leave UK if Corbyn gains power

‘I refuse to see my children live in country that’s hostile to Jews’: British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore who is friends with Prince Harry and David Cameron will leave UK if ‘anti-Semitic’ Labour gain power

  • Historian’s many award-winning books have been praised by world leaders
  • He says history teaches Jews they should leave countries to escape persecution
  • The 53-year-old says he may move to the US or Europe to avoid Corbyn’s Britain 

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, pictured with his wife Santa, says his family may leave the UK is ‘antisemitic’ Labour gain power

Celebrated historian Simon Sebag Montefiore has said he could leave Britain if Jeremy Corbyn gets into power because of Labour’s antisemitism.

The award-winning writer, whose family has lived in the UK since the start of the 19th century, said history has taught him that Jewish people should have their ‘suitcases psychologically packed’ to escape persecution.

The 53-year-old father-of-two said the hostility towards Jewish people displayed by some in the Labour party reminded him of the antisemitism under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

He insists his family ‘love Britain’ and consider themselves British, but they cannot ignore the ‘vomiting of antisemitic bile’.

He told The Times: ‘I would not stay in England to see my children living in an environment hostile to Jewish people… virtually every Jewish family I know has discussed leaving Britain.’

Mr Sebag Montefiore, who counts Prince Charles and David Cameron among his friends, denies that his comments are a political stunt.

He added: ‘This isn’t a hysterical thing… the key lesson history teaches us is that, as things darken, leave in time. Don’t just wait until it happens.’

He is concerned about his children growing up in an antisemitic environment. The family are pictured at a book launch in 2008

Mr Sebag Montefiore, whose history books have been praised by world leaders, says the past informs Jews that should leave countries before persecution begins 

Mr Sebag Montefiore’s father’s family came from southern Europe and Morocco in the 1790s and 1820s while his mother escaped the ‘pogrom’ mob attacks on Jews before the Russian Revolution. 

He said he would consider going to continental Europe or the US if his fears about Corbyn are confirmed.

He spoke of his concerns over Labour while promoting his new book Written in History: Letters that Changed the World


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He also paid tribute to his sister-in-law, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who died suddenly aged 45 last year due to a perforated ulcer. 

Mr Sebag Montefiore said was an ‘extraordinary life force’ who was ‘irrepressible, tempestuous and unpredictable’. 

His comments come after ex-chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks warned that Jews are thinking about fleeing Britain if Corbyn wins power.

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of failing to take on the antisemites in his new-look Labour

Lord Sacks told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: ‘Jews have been in Britain since 1656, I know of no other occasion in these 362 years when Jews – the majority of our community – are asking ”is this country safe to bring up our children”. Now, this is very, very worrying.’

Asked directly if Jews were considering leaving over Mr Corbyn, Lord Sacks said: ‘Of course.’

He added: ‘There is a danger Jeremy Corbyn might one day be Prime Minister. Until he expresses clear remorse for what he said and what his party has done to Jewish sympathisers, he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was.’

Mr Corbyn was filmed in 2013 saying ‘some British Zionists’, by which many took him to mean British Jews, ‘can’t understand English irony’. 

His party sparked fury among Jewish groups this summer when it failed to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism. After months of rows, it adopted the full definition.

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