Bin The Labour Party

I visited this wonderful charity just a few years ago in happier times, and I’m heartbroken this attack has happened. This is a racist crime and we will not tolerate it. Not as a government or a country. We all stand firmly with the Jewish community. I’m grateful to the emergency services and we're working closely with the Met to ensure everyone stays safe.

In Margate. My cheeks are red. I am shaking. I popped into an exhibition that turned out to be the insane fever dream of an artist called Matthew Collins: ‘Drawings Against Genocide.’ The exhibition is described as ‘drawings… raising consciousness about hell…. Israel is the pure encapsulation of it. Zionism is this terror state’s ruling ideology.’ Shocked by the use of Nazi imagery - the room is full of the Star of David pasted around figures meant to be Israelis and the Jewish ‘lobby’ spewing blood, to say nothing of blonde yummy mummies wearing ‘globalise the intifada’ shirts, I spoke to the artist to share my reaction as a Jewish person. He was instantly aggressive. As soon as I started to say I was shocked and threatened by what I was seeing because it was Nazi imagery, the artist started yelling at me that I didn’t mean anything I was saying. Anytime I tried to speak (calmly) he said: ‘you don’t mean any of what you said, you’re just repeating ‘hasbarah talking points’ because ‘you’re defending a genocide’. On and on he yelled, in my face. I said: ‘if I was a Black person…’ but couldn’t finish the sentence because: ‘you’re not are you?’ On the Nazi ideology point he said: ‘yeah. Why do you think it’s there. Israel are the Nazis’. His breath was disgusting. The crowd began booing and closing in around me, making to shoe me out. I said: ‘fine, get the Jew out’ and he yelled more across the room at me, ‘repeatedly jeering ‘call the police, go ahead, call the police’. I said I would, and the community security trust, which features as a devil in his exhibition. This was met with even more jeering. ‘Yeah, call the CST’ was the last I heard before leaving. Someone snapped pictures of me while I was being shouted at. Short video shows the artist. The longer video, of our final almost surreally disgusting exchange, didn’t record.

A two state solution requires recognising Palestine. No recognition, no Palestine. No Palestine. Palestinians continue to be displaced, many go to Europe. British right seem to want more refugees coming. (Primarily because Israel supporters write the pay checks).

I’m on my way to Cuba for an emergency 3-day visit. I’ll be delivering medical aid to a children’s cancer hospital and joining an international delegation of MPs opposed to Trump’s new ban on any fuel entering the country. This cruel policy is putting lives at risk. It is an inhumane attempt to strangle the Cuban people. And Trump is even threatening that Cuba could be “next” after Iran. We must take a stand.

After a month of fasting dawn to dusk - never has a flat white tasted so good. Eid Mubarak! ☕️

Labour governments lift children out of poverty. 450,000 children will benefit from our choice to scrap the two child benefit cap, with those with the broadest shoulders paying a fairer share to cover the cost. This failed Tory experiment has punished innocent children and cost us all in lost opportunity and lower life chances. Labour is putting our values into action lifting children out of poverty. Reform and the Tories would reinstate the cap and push children back below the poverty line.

Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions. And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals. I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook. Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation. Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration. It was an act of domination and therefore division. It shouldn’t happen again.