Michael Lavalette has addressed Your Party audiences with Jeremy Corbyn (counterfire)[Missing Credit]
Lavalette stood as a parliamentary candidate in the summer 2024 general election, finishing second to Labour’s Sir Mark Hendrick.
He told the room that during the election campaign he had been criticised in The Times for refusing to condemn Hamas and its October 7 attacks.
Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation under UK law, making it a criminal offence to express support for the group.
Hamas in Gaza (Image: Gaza)Middle East Images/AFP via Getty
As he recalled the episode and his refusal to take a stand against the banned terror group, he was met with applause from the Your Party audience.
Recounting the hustings, of which he said he was “really proud”, Lavalette told those present: “The first question came from our local Zionist, ‘will you denounce Hamas and do you denounce the horrors of the 7th of October?’
“There were nine candidates, and he started at the far end, ‘yes I denounce Hamas they are a bunch of terrorists, yes I denounce blah whatever’, Labour candidate ‘yes, I denounce Hamas they’re a bunch of terrorists’.”
Lavalette said he replied “absolutely not”, prompting applause from the Your Party audience.
He continued: “There was this stunned silence in the room apart from those who were there with me who were clapping. And then they said ‘well why not?’ and so I took the opportunity to explain that this did not start on October 7 but this started actually during the First World War with the Balfour declaration but primarily in [19]47 with the Nakba and I gave a bit of a Palestinian history for them.”
A flier for the launch event[Missing Credit]
Lavalette was initially barred from the Your Party conference in what his allies described as a “coordinated purge” against voices supportive of Suntana.
He told Sky News at the time that he was informed there was intelligence that he was going to “disruptive”, a claim he said was “simply not true.”
Later, during Muslim Network launch, the three MPs in attendance were invited to address the crowd.
Lavalette spoke on the panel[Missing Credit]
Speaking last, Sultana lambasted what she described as “smears” of antisemitism directed at her and fellow MPs following their support for the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban earlier that month.
She told the audience that when she and Ayoub had “called out [Maccabi’s] racist fan hooliganism, we were smeared as antisemites by Lisa Nandy who used the platform of Parliament to attack us and she specifically implied that as we are Muslim we were antisemitic.”
Sultana said that “calling out” Nandy was important “because we have seen how people have attacked the Palestinian movement as antisemitic”.
Zarah Sultana gives a speech at the inaugural conference of Your Party on November 30, 2025 in Liverpool. (Image: Getty)Getty Images
She was met with applause when she added, “we are anti-Zionist and we are incredibly proud to stand for a single democratic state from the River to the Sea with equal rights for all.”
Sultana went on to say that her approach to politics was shaped by her “Muslim faith” and its “focus on fighting inequality”. Her comments prompted an aggressive interruption from 5 Pillars reporter Robert Carter, who stood up and challenged Sultana over her views on Muslims with “socially conservative beliefs”.
The exchange escalated, with several audience members joining in, and the debate over LGBT issues continued to dominate the remainder of the meeting.
The JC contacted Lavalette, Sultana and Your Party for comment.
