Labour has said this about the visit to Hamas:
A Labour Party spokeswoman said: “Labour supports UK policy not to speak to Hamas. MPs’ visits arranged privately are a matter for them to comment on as individuals.”
Translation: No objections, no opposition, no action.
UPDATE:
Read Rob Marchant at The Centre Left.
UPDATE 2
In this picture, you can see Tony Lloyd MP looking respectfully at Hamas leader, Ahmad Bahar:
Make us victorious over the community of infidels… Allah, take the Jews and their allies, Allah, take the Americans and their allies… Allah, annihilate them completely and do not leave any one of them.
Tony Lloyd MP is wearing a scarf which depicts, as Palestine, a map which shows not just Gaza and the West Bank, but Israel itself.
This is Hamas’ message to Jews.
This is what the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party is supporting.
UPDATE 3
Best of Chums.
UPDATE 4:
Colin in the comments below says:
My earliest political memory is of marching up and down inner Manchester street with fellow urchins chanting, “Vote, vote for Harold Lever, he is sure to win the day…”. These were the streets that elected Harold Lever, the Manchester Labour MP – who happened to be Jewish although I had no notion of that at the time. These same Manchester streets still elect a Manchester Labour MP, Tony Lloyd.
If I’d been old enough then to know the difference then, I’d have been amazed beyond belief to see Harold Lever taking a photo op with, say, Goebells. Now, I know the difference and am just as amazed – and may I say unutterably ashamed – to see the modern day heir to Lever’s seat in a photo op in Gaza with an heir to Goebells and identifying with his cause.
What a waste of young breath on chanting when it has come to this?
