27 MARCH 1971, Page 5

Jew bites Jew

.Gerald Kaufman, new Labour MP and Harold Wilson's most loyal at-heel follower, has suggested in the Jewish Chronicle that Alderman Michael Fidler, the new Con- servative member of parliament for Bury. should resign as President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a position he has held since -1967, Kaufman is also Jewish. His reason for saying that Fidler should resign was that Fidler's support of the new Im- migration Bill might be taken to be that of the Jewish community.

Alderman Fidler writes subsequently to the Jewish Chronicle: 'Gerald Kaufman is not a very nice man . . . On February 27, 1968. the House of Commons debated the (then) Labour Government's Com- monwealth Immigration Bill . . . It created for the first • time in British history certain holders of British passports as second-class citizens. Mr Kaufman Was not then a • member of parliament. • Had he been, he -would doubtless have voted for his leader's Bill . . . Jewish Labour MPS voting for that Bill included: Mr Leo Abse, Mr Edmund Dell, Sir Myer Galpern, Mr David Ginsburg. Mr Harold Lever, Mr Emanuel Shinwell, Mrs Renee Short. Mr John Silkin. Mr Julius Silverman and the then Sir Barnett Janner The question must be asked : Is a supporter of the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Bill qualified to attack supporters of the 1971 Im- migration Bill?' My answer is that such a man has no normal moral business doing so but politics is politics, isn't it? Yes? So you say?