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Labour urges MPs not to attend Palestine-related protests

LABOUR MPs and members have been urged not to attend Palestine-related protests, emails leaked on Saturday revealed, as Israel intensifies its assault on Gaza.

Ahead of protests in support of Palestine and Gaza, right-leaning Labour general secretary David Evans gave MPs “strong advice” not to take part in the demonstrations. He went on to urge members to “exercise similar caution.”

However, another email leaked to ITV News revealed that the wording was much harsher than “strong advice.” 

According to the email seen by ITV, council representatives were told “they must not, under any circumstance” attend any protest or demonstration.

Determined to prevent any affiliation between the party and the protests, the email to all members requested that no Labour Party banners be taken to any of the rallies.

Mr Evans’s reasoning for this was thus: “Individuals will not have the ability to control who they will be photographed alongside, and this risks threatening the Labour Party’s ability to campaign against any form of racism and discrimination.”

The Labour general secretary went on to say that the party leadership “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself,” yet claimed that Labour has called for humanitarian access to Gaza for food, water, electricity and medicine. 

The statement contradicts what party leader Sir Keir Starmer had expressed earlier in the week at the Labour conference, where he stated Israel had “the right” to restrict water and food supplies to nearly two million people in Gaza.

Speaking to the BBC this morning, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has said it was “right” that Labour MPs do not attend Palestine-related protests. He went on to add that Labour should be “careful and cautious” about who they appear alongside.

He said: “It’s important that as we want to be the next government, that people do not share platforms with people who do not share Labour values, that they’re careful and cautious.”

Momentum wrote on X: “It is utterly shameful that the Labour leadership have failed to speak out against the war crimes perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.

“But it is worse still that they are trying to silence public solidarity with Palestinians facing a humanitarian catastrophe.”

So far more than 2,300 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, a quarter of them children, making it the deadliest of the five Gaza wars.

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