Leicester currently has 31 Labour Party councillors, and last Thursday seven of them wrote to their rightwing leader, Sir Kier Starmer, to “unequivocally distance” themselves statements made by their party’s leader. They noted:
“We categorically condemn all acts of violence and the targeting of innocent civilians and are immensely saddened and disappointed at the Leader of the Labour Party’s failure to reject Israel’s policy on the ‘collective punishment’ of civilians in the Gaza Strip, many of whom are innocent young children living in what has been termed, ‘the world’s largest outdoor prison’.”
The councillors added: “We hope Sir Kier’s words were misspoken…” But this is being a little generous as their leaders comments were not misspoken at all. Nevertheless, the councillors went on to…
“…call upon Sir Kier to do the honourable thing by apologizing and retracting his comments, otherwise he will be cause irreparable disillusionment and apathy towards Labour amongst the voting Muslim community in Leicester and across the country.”
The seven councillors who signed the letter were:
- Cllr Hanif Aqbany
- Cllr Misbah Batool
- Cllr Mohammed Dawood
- Cllr Mustafa Malik
- Cllr Raffiq Mohammed
- Cllr Yasmin Surti
- Cllr Syed Zaman
But far from listening to ordinary Labour members or even councillors, the Labour Leadership seems intent on ignoring their very reasonable demands. Only yesterday it was reported:
“Guidance, seen by LabourList, was sent to Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) in advance of protests that took place on Saturday over the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza. The guidance, issued by Labour Party general secretary David Evans, counselled members against attendance at such protests: ‘Elected representatives have been given strong advice not to attend any of these events, and I would urge you to exercise similar caution.’”
To read a statement released by the Israel-Palestine section of Socialist Alternative, see “Amid Normalization of Occupation and Siege, New War Erupts” (October 9).
Thoughts of a Leicester Socialist 