Lee Anderson has taken a brutal swipe at hypocritical Labour MPs, who are voicing outrage at Israel after two of their colleagues were banned from visiting this weekend.
Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were deported on Saturday, with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government accusing them of wanting to spread “anti-Israel hatred”.
The pair, elected last year, had travelled to the Middle Eastern country as part of a wider parliamentary delegation.
Both have track records of attack Israel, including calls for Israel to pay reparations to Palestine, and slamming Israel for killing Hamas officials.
Yesterday dozens of Labour MPs posed for a photo in solidarity with Ms Yang and Ms Mohamed.
However Lee Anderson has now condemned Labour MPs for criticising Israel’s ban on their visit, despite having backed a ban on Donald Trump visiting Britain during his first presidency.
The Reform UK MP tweeted: “The Hypocrisy. Today in Parliament Labour MPs were bleating on about their own MPs being kicked out of Israel. No mention of this though – short memories eh?”
He linked to a BBC article from 2016 covering a Westminster Hall debate, in which many Labour MPs backed a ban on the President speaking in Parliament during the planned state visit.
The Daily Express has now uncovered numerous examples of the same MPs who backed banning Trump from visiting Britain, who are now slamming Israel’s same treatment of British MPs.
David Lammy himself spent the weekend drumming up outrage over Israel’s actions, however was one of the most prominent supporters of banning Trump from visiting Britain.
In 2017 Mr Lammy told MPs: “People are offended and concerned that Britain should abandon all its principles and afford this man a state visit after seven days. Really? And why? Is this great country so desperate for a trade deal that we would throw all of our own history out of the window?
“I think this country is greater than that. I think my children deserve better than that. I think my daughter deserves better than that. I am ashamed, frankly, that it has come to this. We should think very carefully about a President whose attitude towards the press is, as we are finding out, abhorrent.
“We should think very carefully about a President who has said the things he has said. He has put so many people in fear through his statements. For that reason, we should not afford him a state visit.”
Wes Streeting, who posed for the photo yesterday, signed a petition in 2019 saying that President Trump should be banned from a state visit because of his record “including his misogynism, racism and xenophobia”.
Minister Chris Bryant slammed Kemi Badenoch’s support for Israel this weekend, tweeting: “I think it’s more shocking that a putative leader of our country should choose to applaud another country detaining and deporting British MPs rather than stand by the UK’s elected representatives. What price free speech? What price democracy?”
However in 2017 he wrote to Theresa May “asking her to ban Donald Trump from entering the United Kingdom on account of his support for far-right groups in this country”.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi used a PMQs question in 2018 to call on Theresa May to rescind the state visit invitation, however now agrees with David Lammy that it is “disgraceful” for Israel to curtail the free speech of MPs.
Other Labour MPs who backed the petition calling for Trump’s state visit to be blocked, but are now attacking Israel for treating British MPs with the same attitude, include:
- Seema Malhotra
- Stephen Doughty
- Alison McGovern
- Angela Eagle
- Anna McMorrin
- Alex Sobel
- Ellie Reeves
- Marsha de Cordova
- Imran Hussein.
