This is a list of Jews who served as politicians in the United Kingdom and its predecessor states or who were born in the United Kingdom and had notable political careers abroad.
A law in place until the 1850s stated that no member of the Jewish religion could be elected to Parliament. Some Christian denominations were similarly prohibited. If elected, a member would be excluded if he refused to swear an oath of abjuration with a strong Christian wording.
British Members of Parliament listed chronologically by first election date (in brackets)
Manasseh Masseh Lopes (1802–1806, 1807–1808, 1812–1819 & 1820–1829) Lopes converted to Christianity in 1802, and later the same year he entered Parliament as a Tory MP
Ralph Lopes (1814–1819, 1831–1837, 1841–1847 & 1849–1854) Conservative MP.
Ralph Bernal (1818–1841 & 1842–1852) His father was Jewish, Whig MP
David Ricardo (1819–1823) Ricardo converted to Christianity in 1793. Whig MP
Daniel KorskiCBE (born April 1977[68]) is a Danish-born British political adviser and businessperson. He worked as deputy head of the Number 10 Policy Unit for David Cameron and currently serves as a vice-president of the Jewish Leadership Council. He founded the business PUBLIC, which aims to support technology companies get public sector contracts.
Dominic Raab (born 25 February 1974), British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor from 2021 to 2022.
James Schneider (born 17 June 1987),[73] is an English political organiser, journalist and writer; co-founded the left-wing grassroots movement Momentum; was PR advisor to Jeremy Corbyn as Director of Strategic Communications.[74][75]
Michael Levy, Baron Levy (born 11 July 1944), Labour Party peer; was chief fundraiser for the Labour Party and Tony Blair's special envoy to the Middle East;[100] founded Magnet Records ,[101] one of the most successful independent labels of its day; involved in fundraising for Jewish and Israeli causes and ran the Labour Leader's Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the 1997 general election; created a life peer on 23 September 1997 as Baron Levy, of Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet;[102] described by The Jerusalem Post as "undoubtedly the notional leader of British Jewry".[103] He was a founding member of the Jewish Leadership Council, the leadership of UK Jewish community and has close ties with Israeli political leaders. His son, Daniel Levy was assistant to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and to former Knesset member Yossi Beilin and is now President of the US Middle East Project; before that was Head of the Middle East Department of the European Council of Foreign Relations and Levy was associated with the Labour Friends of Israel From 1998 until 2007, he acted as Prime Minister Blair's personal envoy to the Middle East.
^Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "Harry, as he was always called, united both in blood as well as name the vitality, attitudes, and temperaments of two Jewish banking dynasties"
^Flade, Roland. The Lehmans: From Rimpar to the New World: A Family History, 2nd Enlarged Ed., 1999; reviewed by the American Jewish Historical Society. Accessed 14 Nov 2006.
^'SCOTT, Lee', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 31 Dec 2012
^Winchester College: A Register. Edited by P.S.W.K. McClure and R.P. Stevens, on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College. 7th edition, 2014. pp. 905 (Common Time 2000 list heading) & 913 (entry for James Schneider). Published by Winchester College, Hampshire.
^ abcdEncyclopaedia Judaica, art. Politics: "Four women were among the first ten Jews to be made life peers: Dora Gaitskell, Beatrice Serota, Alma Birk and Beatrice Plummer"