Blocked under a Muslim name, allowed into Zoom immediately under a white-sounding alternative – but booted out again for challenging right-wing MP
Labour kept a party member with a Muslim name out of a Zoom call that the Leicester South party had arranged so Labour front-bencher Jonathan Ashworth could answer questions about his decision to help the Tories defeat a parliamentary amendment to demand a ceasefire in Israel’s slaughter of Paletinian civilians in Gaza.
The member’s wife, Sharmen Rahman, posted on social media to report that her husband had been kept waiting to enter a Zoom call – but was immediately allowed in when he signed in again under a white-sounding name – but when he then asked Ashworth his question, the meeting chair said Ashworth didn’t need to answer, before her husband was again booted back to the Zoom ‘waiting room’:
Ashworth was not the only parliamentary Labour coward on show. Starmer also allowed several MPs to talk as if they were going to vote for the ceasefire amendment, in the hope of fooling their local voters, as long as they didn’t actually vote for it.
In a separate post, Rahman said that this all happened while angry Leicester residents were protesting to demand Ashworth’s and neighbouring right-wing MP Liz Kendall’s resignation because of their collusion in the Gaza genocide – Ashworth had changed the meeting to Zoom because of it:
The Muslim Association was one of many to condemn Ashworth’s cowardice and the party’s show of contempt for Muslim communities:
Others called on voters to make their anger known at the ballot box:
The cowardice and betrayal were in stark contrast to Leicester East’s independent MP Claudia Webbe, who has been outspoken for the people of Gaza on behalf of her constituents and voted for the ceasefire after a powerful speech supporting it.
The Leicester scandal was not Labour’s first display of Islamophobia and cowardice. The right-wing regime has been condemned by the Labour Muslim Network for its Islamophobia and active discrimination against Muslims.
What little remains of Labour under Keir Starmer is utterly unfit to organise a tombola, let alone run a country – and Ashworth and Kendall are almost as good a demonstration of why as their party boss.
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