Every councillor in the UK has been sent an email from two Kingston councillors demanding they sign a letter accusing Israel of “war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing“. James Giles and Jamal Chahan have organised the effort, giving their 19,102 fellow UK councillors until Friday this week to sign on. Otherwise, they will publish “the names of those who have been invited to sign but choose not to, in the interest of accountability”. Councillors across the country are reacting pretty angrily to the threatening letter…

Guido readers may be interested to hear James Giles is a longtime agent and collaborator of George Galloway, running various campaigns for him including Batley & Spen’s by-election in 2021. Giles previously hosted Galloway’s programme for Russia-owned SputnikTV and Galloway’s The Mother of All Talk Shows when it was aired by the now-banned RT. He also ran his grandmother’s campaign in a by-election for the same council, which the LibDems and Conservatives denounced as “dirty” for attacking their LibDem rival for being an Ahmadiyya Muslim. A pleasant character no doubt…

Meanwhile, Conservative councillor Jamal Chahan is the son of Tory donor and PPE provider Ashraf Chohan. Guido hears he’s on his way through the candidate process to become a Tory PCC. Guido wonders what local Conservative associations will make of that…

UPDATE: A CCHQ source tells Guido:

“The councillor in question has now been kicked out of the Tory group. He’s also not a party member, so any applications from him won’t be going very far….“

Swift action from the new chairman. Not seeing the same from Sir Keir with his own elected MPs…

UPDATE II: The Local Government Association has expelled the pair and sacked them from all positions.