A LEADING Labour activist has expressed his hope that Edmonton MP Kate Osamor, who was suspended from the party over comments she made about Gaza, will receive a fair hearing in a forthcoming internal investigation.
Osamor remains suspended from the Labour Party after describing the situation in Gaza as genocide in a social media post marking Holocaust Memorial Day in January.
Currently, if voters were to go to the polls, Osamor would stand as an independent MP.
The controversy erupted after Osamor posted the following message via social media and a newsletter marking the World War 2 atrocity.
“Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews
murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of
other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza.”
Complaints
Following complaints from a number of groups, claiming the message was anti-Semitic, Osamor had the whip removed, pending an investigation, and issued an apology.
While Labour has said it will investigate the matter, some believe that the Edmonton MP has been deliberately targeted, amid a wider purge of Black and progressive MPs from the party.
Kingsley Abrams, former National Secretary of Labour Black Sections, and a former councillor, is currently campaigning for the BAME seat on Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), the central governing body of the Labour Party which shapes party policy and strategy.
Speaking to The Voice about Osamor’s suspension Abrams said: “If elected to the NEC, I will fight for a swift and fair investigation, and for this decision to be reversed.”
Labour’s decision to suspend the whip from Kate Osamor appalled me” he said.
“Kate’s reference to Gaza as a genocide came just days after the International Court of Justice’s ruling that South Africa’s case that Israel’s war crimes may constitute genocide is ‘plausible’.
“Sadly, the failure of the Party to implement to recommendations of the Forde report and ongoing racism in the Party mean that black and Asian party members cannot have faith in the Party’s disciplinary processes or decisions taken by the Whips.”
Marc Wadsworth, a respected campaigner and a key figure behind the Labour Black Sections movement, which saw 4 Black MPs historically enter parliament in 1987, described Labour’s disciplinary procedures as ‘crooked’.
“As someone who was chucked out of the party in 2018 after a right-wing anti-Jeremy Corbyn witchunt, I have no faith in Labour’s crooked so-called disciplinary procedures,” he said.
“They will be used by Starmer to unjustly get rid of Abbott and Osamor because, as proud Black socialist women, they are no fans of his sell-out politics.
Pressure
Today, Labour faces continued pressure over Gaza, following George Galloway MP’s shock landslide victory in the Rochdale by-election.
Galloway made Gaza a key plank of his campaign which chimed with many disaffected Labour voters including sections of the constituency’s British Muslim community.
Concerns over whether or not Osamor will receive a fair hearing in the forthcoming investigation follow those expressed in recent months by party activists about how seriously Labour under Sir Keir Starmer Black voters who have historically provided loyal support at the ballot box.
Anger erupted last month, after The Voice and other Black community organisations were excluded from a conference on Labour’s plan for race equality.
Many believe that Starmer faces a difficult challenge if he is to restore faith among Black voters who say they feel abandoned by the party they have always backed.
The Voice approached the Labour Party for comment on the continued suspension of Kate Osamor MP.
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Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party does not honour independent thinking African, and African-Caribbean heritage MPs, Councillors, or Labour voters, and supporters.
With the Rt Hon Kate Osamor MP, the Rt Hon Dianne Abbott excluded from Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party, how can London’s African-heritage Labour Voters continue to give Labour their vote, and support?
Many African, and African-Caribbean people believe the Semitic people of military occupied Palestine have been oppressed for decades.
The Labour Party has become so under the influence of the ethnic Caucasian Jewish lobby, that any criticism of Israel is viewed as unacceptable discrimination.
Under England’s noble Magna Carta traditions, no ethnic group, nation, religion, monarch, or financial association, is above criticism.
Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party wants to render all criticism of one specific religious, and racial group, punishable by being removed from the Labour Party.
Few in England would support Labour’s privileged protection for this one specific ethnic lobby.
Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party does not honour independent thinking African, and African-Caribbean heritage MPs, Councillors, or Labour voters, and supporters.
With the Rt Hon Kate Osamor MP, the Rt Hon Dianne Abbott excluded from Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party, how can London’s African-heritage Labour Voters continue to give Labour their vote, and support?
Many African, and African-Caribbean people believe the semitic people of military occupied Palestine have been oppressed for decades.
The Labour Party has become so under the influence of the ethnic Caucasian Jewish lobby, any criticism of Israel is viewed as unacceptable discrimination.
Under England’s noble Magna Carta traditions, no ethnic group, nation, religion, monarch, or financial association, is above criticism.
Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party wants to render all criticism of one specific religious, and racial group, punishable by being removed from the Labour Party.
Few in England would support Labour’s privileged protection for this one specific ethnic lobby.
Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party does not honour independent thinking African, and African-Caribbean heritage MPs, Councillors, or Labour voters, and supporters.
With the Rt Hon Kate Osamor MP, the Rt Hon Dianne Abbott excluded from Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party, how can London’s African-heritage Labour Voters continue to give Labour their vote, and support?
Many African, and African-Caribbean people believe the semitic people of military occupied Palestine have been oppressed for decades.
The Labour Party has become so under the influence of the ethnic Caucasian Jewish lobby, any criticism of Israel is viewed as unacceptable discrimination.
Under England’s noble Magna Carta traditions, no ethnic group, nation, religion, monarch, or financial association, is above criticism.
Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour Party wants to render all criticism of one specific religious, and racial group, punishable by being removed from the Labour Party.
Few in England would support Labour’s privileged protection for this one specific ethnic lobby.