The first day of the Labour Party Conference was eclipsed by the shocking news from Israel. And while today’s conference action feels trivial in the shadow of war, there can be no doubt that the conflict has raised tensions in Liverpool.
As Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves made her speech promising “once in a generation reforms” that would “get Britain building again”, a group of pro-Palestine protesters gathered outside the conference. A video showed a man brave enough to call the protest “atrocious” but he was drowned out by insults.
At the weekend, Israel declared itself at war with Palestine after roughly 1000 Hamas terrorists entered Israel killing more than 700 people and injuring thousands more. On the severity of the surprise attack, an Israeli government spokesperson said: “This is our 9/11 – they got us.” Israel has retaliated with heavy airstrikes on Gaza and this morning the Israeli defence minister declared a “complete siege” cutting Palestinians off from electricity, food and fuel.
Back in Britain, this morning pictures surfaced showing the smashed glass door of a Jewish restaurant in Golder’s Green, with the words “Free Palestine” spray-painted over the nearby railway bridge. Videos from the weekend have also shown pro-Palestine marches in both Birmingham and Manchester.
This tension was bound to creep into Labour’s conference given its history on the subject. Old videos of Jeremy Corbyn defending Hamas surfaced on Twitter and yesterday he was doorstepped by journalists asking if he wished to explicitly condemn Hamas. He said: “I don’t support any attacks. Therefore, I criticise them all. And that, I think, is the end of the matter.”
But Labour has been deliberately rebranding itself. All Keir Starmer can say at the moment is: “We’ve changed.” And so, he says, Labour is the “party of change.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy swiftly and sharply condemned Hamas on behalf of his party, saying: “Labour stands firmly in support of Israel’s right to defend itself”. Additionally, he co-authored an op-ed with Yvette Cooper in the Jewish Chronicle, announcing that: “Labour is calling for a zero-tolerance approach to any intimidation and harassment directed towards Jewish communities here in Britain. Policing must now surge. Security is the meaning of solidarity.”
Yesterday, the Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse Apsana Begum was pictured at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign stand at conference. So far, Keir Starmer has yet to remove the whip from her and is under mounting pressure to do so. If Labour really has changed, you would think this would be a perfect way to prove it.
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