Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch are not known to be especially chummy at the best of times – and relations have worsened after two Labour MPs were denied entry to Israel over the weekend. Lammy was quick to accuse the Tory leader of ‘cheerleading another country for detaining and deporting two British MPs’ after Badenoch defended Israel’s decision on Sunday, telling the Beeb’s Laura Kuenssberg that ‘it’s shocking that we have Labour MPs who other countries will not allow through’. Oo er.
Outrage quickly spread through the Labour party after it emerged that Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were not allowed entry to Israel on Saturday. The duo had been part of a delegation organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding and Medical Aid for Palestinians, which had been preparing to visit the West Bank. The pair said they were ‘astounded’ by Israel’s decision, which was, according to the Times of Israel, made after the country suspected the politicians of wanting to ‘document Israeli security forces and spread hateful rhetoric against Israel’. While Lammy slammed the incident as ‘unacceptable, counterproductive and deeply concerning’, Badenoch took a rather different stance, insisting on the BBC:
If you look at the reasons why the Israeli government has given for why they’re not letting them in, they don’t believe that they’re going to comply with their laws. MPs do not have diplomatic immunity. I believe that the people who represent us in Parliament should be people who should be able to go anywhere in the world and people not be worried about what they’re going to do when they go into those countries.
This prompted a furious outburst from the Labour Foreign Secretary, who took to Twitter to blast Badenoch:
It’s disgraceful you are cheerleading another country for detaining and deporting two British MPs. Do you say the same about Tory MPs banned from China? This government will continue to stand up for the rights of our MPs to speak their mind, whatever their party.
But Badenoch wasn’t for backing down, hitting back fiercely:
Unlike China, Israel is our ally and a democracy. A good Foreign Secretary would be able to make that distinction. Perhaps Labour MPs could put UK national interest first and do their jobs instead of campaigning for airports in Kashmir or promoting Hamas propaganda in parliament.
Shots fired! Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily Thornberry has labelled Badenoch’s remarks as ‘nonsense’, while Conservative MP and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Richard Fuller didn’t seem quite convinced by his party leader’s argument either – issuing a warning about democracy and declaring that parliamentarians on official trips should be ‘welcomed in any country’. Will Lammy’s Foreign Office make further comment on the matter in the Commons today? Stay tuned…
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