Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat has caused a stir in the Commons by attacking Labour over the £800 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority. Tugendhat raised concerns about well-resourced Hamas operations…
Labour minister Melanie Ward shouted “shame on you” at Tugendhat. His comments about the aid:
“What have we seen for it? Well, we have seen the vile indoctrination of hatred, of the control of food and services to achieve dictatorial compliance. And we have seen the biggest network of tunnels built to prepare for war. But of course, it’s striking, isn’t it, that these air raid shelters were not built to protect the civilians. They were never allowed in. Palestinian women and children were never allowed in the tunnels…
I can see the lady shaking her head [in reference to Melanie Ward]. If she wants to side with Hamas, she’s welcome to. But if she wishes to stand with the Palestinian people, she should recognise what Hamas has done. Those who stand with the Palestinian people stand against Hamas. And again and again and again, we have sadly seen Hamas torturing and murdering so many…
We recognise that aid has been weaponized by the Hamas leadership that has been in control for more than 20 years. Again and again and again, it has chosen to hurt, to murder, to destroy its own people for the political benefit of its masters in Tehran and its vile ideology.”
A sobering point…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”