Labour is facing urgent questions over how much its national leadership knew before the party’s councillors in Birmingham voted for a “sectarian” motion to divest from Israel, the JC can reveal.
An aide to home secretary Shabana Mahmood was among the Labour representatives who supported the call for a review of the local authority’s ties to the Jewish state.
The JC can reveal other Labour MPs’ staff also voted for the motion, which was backed by Green, Liberal Democrat and independent councillors and labelled Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide”.
After amendments, the wording addressed other conflicts, in Ukraine and Congo, but it was chants of “free Palestine” that rang out across the chamber last week acclaiming the vote of 54 in favour and 19 against.
Jewish leaders condemned the motion as harming “community cohesion” in the city that was rocked by the scandal over the ban on Israeli football fans last year.
The claim of “genocide” and advocacy of divestment are both at odds with the government’s stance.
But now Labour sources in Birmingham have told the JC that local officials have claimed that the national party had given them permission to vote for the motion.
The accusations of “sectarian” antics in Birmingham come as the JC also reveals that the Labour Party paid for Facebook adverts attacking Israel as part of its by-election campaign in Holborn and St Pancras last month.
Conservative shadow communities and local government secretary Katie Lam attacked Birmingham Labour’s decision to support the motion, saying they should concentrate “on local priorities such as the bin strikes and ballooning welfare, not obsessing over the Middle East”.
She said the prime minister had questions to answer about why an aide to the home secretary, Cllr Marcus Bernasconi, had supported the motion.
The JC can also reveal that Labour Cllr Sarina Younas, who is listed in her register of interests as a “community engagement officer” for Labour MP Liam Byrne, also backed the motion.
So did the party’s deputy leader on Birmingham Council, Shuranjeet Singh.
His register of interests says his job is as a “communications manager employed by Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority”, the body which administers MPs’ staffing and business costs.
However, four sources told the JC that he works for Sarah Coombes MP, the Labour representative for West Bromwich, a constituency just outside of Birmingham.
In the aftermath of the vote, several sources in the Birmingham Labour Party have told the JC that local leadership of the party had claimed that they had backed the motion, labelled divisive by critics, with the knowledge and approval of the party nationally.
When contacted, the Labour Party did not comment on the suggestion that it had given the party in Birmingham permission to do so.
However, the JC has been told by senior sources that the Birmingham Labour Group did not seek advice from the party nationally on how to vote when it comes to the motion, nor was it given.
One senior Labour source was incandescent with their actions when they found out.
The source said: “It’s astonishing that the Labour Group of councillors in Birmingham didn’t seek any advice from the party nationally before engaging with and amending an inflammatory motion on such a sensitive subject that has ramifications way beyond their council.”
A spokesperson for the Birmingham Labour Group told the JC: “Labour councillors voted for the amended motion, which sets out a wider approach to ethical investment and procurement. It calls for public money to be used consistently with human rights, workers’ protections and environmental responsibility.
“We support the government’s commitment to a two-state solution, with security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians” they added.
Labour’s rivals are demanding a clear explanation of the party’s stance on their Birmingham party’s actions, which were sternly criticised.
Lam told the JC: “Labour councillors in Birmingham should be concentrating on local priorities such as the bin strikes and ballooning welfare, not obsessing over the Middle East. This is performative politics at its worst.
“If Andy Burnham doesn’t agree with this motion, he has serious questions to answer about why an aide to the home secretary was involved in backing it. If he does agree with the motion, he should explain why local councils should be wasting their time on foreign policy grandstanding."
The Tory frontbencher added: “This kind of sectarianism is poisonous. It stirs up group-based grievances and distracts from the issues that matter to taxpayers. We have to stamp it out, at every level.”
The Conservative Group on Birmingham council voted against the motion.
The vote by Birmingham Labour councillors came a few weeks after several of the city’s Labour MPs spoke out against the coalition arrangements to govern the city between the Liberal Democrats and Green Party, citing the latter’s endorsement of a motion equating Zionism with racism.
Preet Gill, Al Carns and Jess Phillips urged Lib Dem council leader Roger Harmer to “show moral fibre and bring your power sharing agreement with the Greens in Birmingham to an immediate end”.
Lord Walney, the government’s former independent adviser on political violence and disruption, decried the degree to which Israel was dominating local government in Birmingham.
He told the JC: “It is no wonder local services in Birmingham are in turmoil when councillors prioritise an international conflict thousands of miles away over which they have zero influence.
“Promises from the leaders of political parties to tackle antisemitism after the ‘Zionism is racism’ debacle will mean little unless they stop their representatives obsessing over and demonising Israel.”
The former Labour MP urged both Labour and Lib Dem leaders to re-focus their attention on matters they have control over: “Andy Burnham and Ed Davey must insist their local representatives focus on local services rather than these boycott campaigns that fan the flames of anti-Jewish extremism.”
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