A Labour MP has had the party whip removed in part because of an interview he gave to an anti-Israel blogger and former candidate for George Galloway’s party, sources have suggested to the JC.
Karl Turner, a former shadow attorney general who has served as Labour MP for Hull East since 2010, posted on X that he had not been informed of his suspension by the party.
“I am being told that I have had the whip suspended but I have not had any notification from the whips about this. It seems journalists have been told but I have not.”
Turner has been vocal in his criticism of proposed government reforms to jury trials.
Earlier this month, he told Times Radio that he had been given a caution for his campaigning in opposition to the government: “I'm already on a conduct warning for having the audacity to say that these proposals are ludicrous. I'm not going to be bullied around.”
The JC understands that the suspension apparently relates to a pattern of behaviour.
Senior Conservative politicians reacted angrily to his apparent suspension.
“This Labour Government is SO authoritarian,” Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said in a post on social media,
Shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson posted on X: “In 1670, jurors were locked up for refusing to convict — and the courts said ‘never again’ (Bushel’s Case). In 2026, an MP loses the whip for defending jury trial.”
“This is what happens if you don’t have criminal and human rights lawyers right at the heart of government. Oh…wait,” he said sarcastically, appearing to reference the prime minister and attorney-general’s past careers.
However, one well-placed Labour source has suggested to the JC that a reason for Turner’s suspension was for an interview he gave to anti-Israel blogger and former candidate for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Great Britain at the previous general election.
Jody McIntyre slashed Labour minister Jess Philips’ majority in her Birmingham Yardley constituency to 693. He campaigned prominently on the issue of Gaza and accused Labour of backing an Israeli “genocide”. Phillips said at the time that the campaign was the "worst election I have ever stood in".
In a series of posts on social media, McIntyre claims that Turner unleashed brutal criticism of the former prime minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
Seperately, McIntyre has published articles alleging a pro-Israel agenda in pushing for reforms to jury trials.
On 25 March, he published a piece titled “Meet the pro-Israeli lawyers who want to restrict jury trials in England” and claimed that his investigations “reveal pro-Israeli lawyers pushing for the change”.
On the day Hatzola ambulances were attacked, he published an article wrongly stating that they were a “Jewish only” ambulance service and appeared to suggest an Israeli “false flag” operation.
“The Israeli state are already blaming Iran, but can they be trusted? This certainly wouldn’t be the first time they have engaged in a ‘false flag’ attack”, he wrote.
Speaking to the JC, Turner said that he had no idea that McIntyre had been a candidate against Labour, that he emphatically disagreed with the articles he’s published on Israel and that McIntyre had misrepresented his words in his interview.
“I spoke to this man. I messaged him afterwards to say that he had misrepresented what I said. I also didn’t have a clue that he was the candidate against Jess Philips.”
The Hull East MP continued: “With hindsight I wished I’d have done more research about the guy. If I’d have known he was the candidate against Jess I wouldn’t have spoken to him. I don’t agree with the articles relating to Israel that he’s published, they’re clearly barmy.”
The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.
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