Labour accused of ‘performative politics’ with sanctions on Israel ahead of Holborn and St Pancras by-election

Former Environment Secretary Sir Ranil Jayawardena has said the decision to sanction Israel is ‘performative politics’ designed to get support ahead of the Holborn and St Pancras by-election against the Green Party.

Speaking on GB News he said: “I think this is concerning. I think Tom [Tugendhat] also said that he doesn’t disagree with the intent, but that this was performative.

“He was really clear that the settlements, by definition, illegal settlements, they are wrong, and that he was clear also that Israeli ministers have in some cases, indulged in hateful propaganda, and that’s wrong.

“But this isn’t going to achieve what I think the British government wants it to achieve, and the risk is that it drives up anti-Semitism here, and that it actually puts both the Israeli government and Palestinians in a much darker place where potentially, and I’m not defending it for a second, potentially it gives a second wind to Hamas and the other, let’s be blunt, the other big baddies in the region, Iran, who have funded the terrorism.

“And that’s why in the past I have said that on occasion the Israeli government are their own worst enemies because of what they do. But that’s not an excuse for the British government to have to act in this way today.

“I think this is performative politics. You could see it from their benches. Everyone was lined up. The whips had been in action to get people there to send a message ahead of the Holborn and St Pancras by-election that Labour is back.

“The point is that there is that performative politics now in the Labour Party, which is that we need to send a signal.”