This week, the UK Government has published a Bill that will both jettison Britain’s respect for international laws that ban the acquisition of territory by conquest and ignore UN rules signed by the UK over a decade ago calling on businesses to ensure their commercial dealings abroad uphold human rights. The Bill will also uniquely shield human rights abuses by Israel from scrutiny by UK public...
To all my friends living in my home town: Please consider this. There are around 1.1 million Palestinians living in the north of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military order that they should leave within 24 hours is like telling the population of Birmingham to leave within 24 hours – including evacuating the Queen Elizabeth, other hospitals and care homes in the city, as well as people’s houses...
Visiting the occupied West Bank & Gaza last week, Medical Aid for Palestinians Vice Chair, Shireen Jayyusi and I were at Rafidia hospital in Nablus on Thursday. We arrived just hours after an Israeli military raid on the town in which soldiers had surrounded the hospital overnight. We heard testimony from doctors that tear gas canisters had been thrown through hospital windows by Israeli...
It’s 20 years since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. I was one of 139 Labour MPs who opposed the invasion in the key vote which took place in the House of Commons. Six months earlier, I had written directly to Tony Blair expressing my concerns about the course he was taking. The letter is here:
Sir Keir was right to signal once again that there is no place whatsoever for antisemitism. But I was disappointed by other statements in his address to Labour Friends of Israel. Originally published by the Independent, November 18, 2021 In his speech to the annual lunch of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) this week, Keir Starmer said “true friends will always be frank.” He is right about that. So...
I was on a driving holiday in north Italy and southern France. On 9/11 we were caught up for hours in what seemed like an endless traffic jam outside Nice. Having finally given up on that day’s journey, we checked into a small hotel in Sanary-sur-Mer. Turning on the TV, shocked doesn’t begin to describe our reaction to seeing CNN footage of the plane hitting the South Tower under headline...
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.