“Then DO something!” – BBCQT participants hammer Alexander over Labour’s Gaza ‘betrayal’

Video: Starmer Cabinet member answers question about continued arms shipments to Israel that they’re not ‘direct’ – it doesn’t go well

A ‘betrayed’ BBC Question Time audience member skewered a Keir Starmer front-bencher last night as she demanded to know why the UK is still shipping parts to Israel for its F-35 fighter jets that it is using to bomb civilians in Gaza – with babies and children particularly targeted.

Transport minister Heidi Alexander’s answer that the UK isn’t shipping the parts ‘directly’ to Israel could not be more inadequate, or more misleading – the Starmer government sent more weapons to Israel in three months than the UK had sent in four years under the Tory government and knows full well that the parts are going to Israel via intermediaries. It is in court defending the supply against human rights groups who want it stopped:

That was not the end of the rough ride for Alexander – a signatory of Israel lobby group We believe in Israel‘s ‘Fairness for Israel Charter’. Journalist Ava Santina Evans also took her to task over the UK’s arming of Israel against Gaza:

Labour under Keir Starmer appears to have decided it must seem as if it opposes Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, suddenly describing it as ‘intolerable’ after eighteen months of providing military support, political cover and immunity to the genocidal occupation and claiming falsely to have suspended trade talks. But it is continuing to arm, equip and provide spy flights to Israel – and is fighting in court to continue doing so – knowing perfectly well that it is helping in the slaughter and starvation.

But few are fooled, and nobody who doesn’t want to be. Last night’s torrid time for Heidi Alexander was yet another demonstration of this.

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