A leading left-wing Labour MP today branded her party ‘institutionally racist’ against Muslims as a bloody internal row over the fighting in Gaza deepened.
Zarah Sultana said that the party had ‘a problem’ after Sir Keir Starmer ordered MPs not to back calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in a Commons vote.
The MP for Coventry South was one of more than 50 MPs to defy him in order to vote for a permanent end to fighting, a move which critics say would only help Hamas regroup to commit more terror attacks.
In an interview with Novara Media Ms Sultana, who chairs the hard left Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, said that the Commons should have taken ‘the correct stand’ against Israeli ‘war crimes’.
She also likened a pro-Palestinian protest outside Parliament when the vote took place last Wednesday to the demonstrations against the Iraq War in 2003.
Asked about Islamophobia in the Labour party she said she had not experienced it, but knew people who had.
‘The Labour Party has a problem and I would go as far as saying it is institutionally racist because this isn’t just my individual experience or the experience of members, it crosses through to the briefings that come out, the kind of language that is used, the policies that we’re willing to say are fine and acceptable,’ she said.
Zarah Sultana said that the party had ‘a problem’ after Sir Keir Starmer ordered MPs not to back calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in a Commons vote.
The MP for Coventry South was one of more than 50 MPs to defy him in order to vote for a permanent end to fighting, a move which critics say would only help Hamas regroup to commit more terror attacks.
She also likened a pro-Palestinian protest outside Parliament when the vote took place last Wednesday to the demonstrations against the Iraq War in 2003.
Ms Sultana was elected in 2019 with a majority of just 400, having lost almost 8,000 votes compared with Labour predecessor Jim Cunningham.
She is a supporter of previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was kicked out of the Labour parliamentary party in a row over anti-Semitism during his time in charge.
Her attack comes as shadow foreign secretary David Lammy makes Labour’s first visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since Hamas’s atrocity sparked a full-scale war.
In Israel, he will meet with politicians including president Isaac Herzog after calling for a ‘longer pause’ to the conflict to alleviate the ‘shocking humanitarian emergency’ in Gaza.
Mr Lammy will also meet with the Palestinian Authority’s deputy foreign minister Amal Jadu in the West Bank.
Sir Keir has been battling a rift in his party, with eight frontbenchers having resigned to defy his position and vote in the Commons to support a ceasefire.
From Israel, Mr Lammy criticised the international allies for failing to realise the threat posed by Hamas ahead of the October 7 bloodshed.
The shadow foreign secretary urged them to ‘learn the lessons of decades of failure to resolve this conflict’.
He said political leaders have been complacently ‘content with the delusions of wishful thinking’ while failing to work for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Mr Lammy also stressed that ‘diplomacy is how we can secure the release of hostages’ while protecting Palestinians, as Israel carries out a ground assault.
‘Hard diplomacy is required with all governments in the region to deliver a longer pause immediately to respond to the shocking humanitarian emergency in Gaza, secure the release of hostages so cruelly taken by Hamas and as a necessary step to an enduring cessation of violence,’ he said.
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