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22 Jews Elected to British Parliament; 19 Laborites, 3 Conservatives

October 11, 1959
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Returns in Britain’s election indicated today that there will be 22 Jewish members in the House of Commons as in the previous Parliament but there will be one more Conservative and one less Labor deputy. In the previous Parliament there were 20 Jewish Labor MP’s and two Conservatives.

One of the highlights of the Labor setback was the loss of his seat by Ian Mikardo, vice chairman of the Labor party, member of the Poale Zion and of the British Committee of the Histadrut. Another Jewish Socialist who lost his seat was Maurice Ohrbach.

While most of the Jewish MP’s retained their posts, they did so with reduced majorities. Those returned to Parliament were Barnett Janner, president of the British Board of Jewish Deputies, Maurice Edelman, author and journalist, Emanuel Shinwell, Sidney Silverman, member of the world executive of the World Jewish Congress, Julius Silverman, Marcus Lipton, David Weitzman, Austin Albu, F. Allaum, M. Cliffe, John Diamond, M. Lever, N.H. Lever, G. R. Strauss, Leo Abse, G. Jeger and J.J. Mendison. Two new Jewish Labor MP’s elected were M. Galpern and D. Ginsburg.

The two Conservative Jewish MP’s, Sir Henry Davigdor Goldsmid and Sir Keith Joseph, were reelected. The third Jewish Conservative MP is A. Royle.

Sir Oswald Mosley, the British Fascist, was at the bottom of the list in the election in the North Kensington constituency and forfeited his election deposit. Mosley polled 2,800 votes, compared with 15,000 for the Labor candidate, 14,000 for the Conservative entry and 3,000 for the Liberal candidate, a Jew.

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