More people have quit Labour in Slough following the resignation of seven councillors from the party earlier this month, letters seen by the LDRS suggest.
Former Labour councillor in Slough Mohammed Sharif has resigned claiming that members faced suspension or punishment for voicing support for Palestinians or criticism of Israel.
In a resignation letter seen by the LDRS he highlights how Labour MP Afzal Khan was moved to apologise for being photographed at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign stall at the party’s conference in October.
Mr Sharif also highlighted his own experience of being suspended from the Labour Party in 2019 over Facebook posts criticising Israel, only to be reinstated in 2021 having been acquitted.
In the letter Mr Sharif said: “A party that once felt like a family, has become a party where one now feels suffocation and oppression, fearing their cards can be marked any minute, where anything can be brought up to wipe out their hard work and contribution to their party.”
Mr Sharif’s resignation comes after seven councillors quit the Labour Party on 6 June, also claiming party members had been discouraged from voicing support for Palestinians.
The LDRS has also seen a letter claiming as many as 300 people had left the party following the councillors’ resignations on 6 June. However the LDRS was not able to verify this claim, and Labour sources suggest the true figure could be far lower.
The letter claims resigning members felt ‘profound disillusionment and anger’ over the Labour Party’s position on Palestine and the was in Gaza. It said the party had ‘failed’ to criticise Israel strongly enough, or to give sufficient support to Palestinians.
Its demands included that party leader Keir Starmer and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy ‘apologise for justifying the military onslaught that has led to tens of thousands of civilians, aid workers, UN officials and reporters being massacred.’
It also said Labour had failed ‘to commit to strong sanctions against Israel’ and to support the end of British arms sales to Israel.
However, despite claims that more than 300 members had resigned in Slough, the Labour Party says the version of the letter it received was signed by just 42 people.
A party spokesperson told the LDRS that of these, 13 had either quit or let their membership lapse before the general election was called last month.
The spokesperson added that they had ‘no record of active membership’ for 11 of them, and no indication that 12 of them were on the electoral role – a condition of Labour membership.
The statement clarified that they couldn’t say for sure how many people might have left by cancelling membership direct debits until payments stopped coming in. But added: “As far as we can tell there’s no real evidence that anything like 300 people have resigned.”
Labour was also asked whether members were free to voice support for Palestinians or criticism of Israel but did not respond.
In an interview with the LDRS this month party leader Keir Starmer said Labour had called for a ceasefire in Gaza ‘for many months now’ adding that there had been ‘tens of thousands of people killed, too many women and children in particular’.
