Our Lambeth correspondent, KEN INGTON, on the latest scandal that threatens to cause ructions at Brixton Town Hall
Front page news: how the Workers’ Daily characterised the suspension of four Labour councillors. Entirely accurately
Labour has again outraged its own members for a purge of four councillors in Lambeth who refused to vote against calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
One of four councillors suspended by Labour in Lambeth, Martin Abrams, is Jewish.
Abrams said that the party meeting staged on Monday night to judge his action of voting for peace rather than following a party whip was “humiliating” and “like a show trial”.
Abrams appears to have been picked out for special punishment: while the three other councillors have been handed suspensions lasting a few weeks, his suspension is “indefinite”.
Most ridiculously of all, the Lambeth suspensions came less than a week since Keir Starmer and the parliamentary Labour Party performed a U-turn and voted for a Gaza ceasefire, albeit under controversial circumstances in the House of Commons.
The Lambeth suspensions also come just months after Blairite Steve Reed OBE, MP for Croydon North since 2012, sidled into the position as parliamentary candidate for the revised Croydon North and Streatham constituency. Labour insiders suspect that Reed may have had some influence over the latest purge of left-wing members in his new fiefdom.
Resigned: former Labour councillor Sonia Winifred
The suspensions have immediately brought about the prospect of a council by-election in Knight’s Hill ward, after one of the councillors affected, Sonia Winifred, resigned from the council altogether. Winifred is a former Lambeth Council cabinet member.
Winifred and Deepak Sardiwal (Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction ward) were both given three-month suspensions. Sarina Da Dilva (Waterloo and South Bank), who abstained in the town hall vote on a motion put forward by Lambeth Greens, was handed a two-month suspension.
The Green party motion last month called for “an immediate ceasefire and the end to human rights atrocities in the Israel/Palestine conflict”.
At the meeting held at Brixton Town Hall, 20 out of 58 Lambeth Labour councillors were absent.
The Morning Star reported yesterday: “More than 100 [Labour] councillors have resigned since the start of the Gaza crisis in October over the scandal caused by party leader Starmer’s overt support for Israeli war crimes.” There have been no such resignations from Croydon’s Labour councillors.
In Lambeth, Abrams is well-regarded as a hard-working ward councillor and an outspoken Jewish pro-Palestinian activist, as well as a spokesman for the left-wing Momentum campaign group.
After his suspension was announced, Abrams said, “My vote for the ceasefire motion was a matter of conscience for me.
“My great grandparents were persecuted and driven from eastern Europe over 100 years ago in the pogroms of Kiev and came to this country as refugees with nothing, leaving and losing many close family in the process.
“It is exactly this history of persecution of my close ancestors in Europe over the ages that meant I was brought up to always stand with the oppressed and against oppression and when I say never again, I mean never again: for everybody.”
In an official statement, Momentum described Abrams’ suspension as “an outrageous attack on a Jewish Labour councillor”.
They said: “Martin is a principled socialist and internationalist — and it is shocking that he has been forced out for standing up for a position endorsed by the majority of voters. This anti-democratic decision should be immediately reversed.”
Town Hall demo: Cllr Martin Abrams (second right) has made no secret of his opposition to people being killed
Jewish Voice for Labour’s Mike Cushman said that the group is “shocked and disappointed but not surprised” at the decision to suspend the councillors.
“It is sad that Lambeth Labour insisted on doing this even after the national party has moved much closer to calling for a ceasefire…
“This shows a narrow-mindedness among parts of the Labour Party that cannot endure any dissent and wants total obedience to a party line — even after the party line seems to have changed.
“It is clear that in today’s Labour Party even being a Jew does not allow you to have a considered opinion about Israel’s actions and the appalling level of killing and destruction in Gaza.”
Local councillors who have quit Labour over its stance on Gaza are meeting in London this weekend to co-ordinate their work and develop their positioning as an alternative to their former party.
A statement from meeting organisers said: “Disciplinary sanctions on Labour councillors wanting to speak out against the Gaza genocide will only drive more local representatives out of the party. Starmer’s opposition to a ceasefire, only recently modified, is destroying the party.”
Today, speaking to Grauniad journalist Owen Jones, Abrams said of his disciplinary meeting: “There were 70 people in the room. It felt like a show trial to humiliate and shame the councillors that voted for a ceasefire.
‘We are witnessing one of the greatest crimes of our age’
“My hearing took two hours. It was humiliating. The whips tried to paint a picture of me as someone who doesn’t deserve to be in the Labour group. This was a vote of conscience for me based on my Jewish background. This wasn’t accepted as a reason for my breaking the whip.”
Abrams is a councillor for Streatham St Leonard’s ward, which borders Croydon and is in the new Croydon North and Streatham constituency.
In a fuller statement, Abrams said: “As a councillor with a very diverse ward with sizeable Muslim and Jewish communities, I have been consistent in condemning the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7, but I have also been clear that one crime does not justify another.
“I believe that in Gaza we are witnessing one of the greatest crimes of our age.
“As someone from a Jewish background I have found the past four months to be emotionally challenging, both personally and professionally, amid the constant stream of horrific images coming out of Gaza. As a parent myself, the images of children killed or maimed in the Israeli bombardment have had a terrible impact on my mental health. My suffering, however, is incomparable to the pain, loss and suffering that people are facing in Gaza as I write this statement.
“Over the last four months I have had countless conversations with local residents in Streatham about the war in Gaza, I have responded to dozens of emails, I’ve been to Friday prayers at the local Mosque and Erev Shabbat at the local Synagogue in my ward. I’ve been to vigils with the Jewish community calling for the release of Israeli hostages and I have been on the Palestine solidarity marches.
Silent: Steve Reed
“First and foremost I have listened and the vast majority of people I have spoken to want an immediate end to the violence and that is reflective of the country and Labour Party membership, with the latest polls showing 66% of voters wanting an immediate ceasefire and 89% of Labour Party voters.
“…I will continue to serve as Councillor for Streatham St Leonard’s ward and continue to work tirelessly for every single member and resident of our vibrant and diverse community of Streatham.”
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Streatham who has been shunted aside by Steve Reed’s little party political land grab, expressed her “disappointment” at the suspensions of party colleagues.
The MP described Abrams as “one of the most principled, hard-working and talented councillors”.
And Ribeiro-Addy said, “Nobody should feel ashamed for standing with the courage of their convictions, and indeed with what is now stated Labour policy.
“As a MP, I never faced sanctions for voting for a ceasefire. They shouldn’t have either.”
Reed, meanwhile, has said nothing.
Read more: Ribeiro-Addy is shunted aside for Reed’s political ambitions
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: Labour members still waiting for their MP candidate decision
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“Abrams appears to have been picked out for special punishment: while the three other councillors have been handed suspensions lasting a few weeks, his suspension is “indefinite”.”
He’s Jewish.
His plea that his vote of conscience was based on his Jewish background was ignored.
He gets harsher treatment than the others.
Looks like anti-Semitism to me.
Imagine how bad things will be for all of us if these witchfinders get into power
Curiouser and curiouser. There’s more to this story than meets the eye!
You need to REED between the lines, Arno…
That makes a lot of (not nice) sense!
It’s a mystery to me why they have free votes on committing British troops and whipped overs on the committing of troops in other countries that we have no treaties with.