Angela Rayner vowed a Labour government would recognise the state of Palestine as she urged Muslim voters to back her and the party at the next election.
Video circulating online shows the party’s deputy leader speaking to voters in her Ashton-under-Lyne seat and thanking them for getting her ‘over the line’ at the 2019 election.
She then admits ‘people are angry’ about the growing humanitarian disaster in Gaza following the Israeli invasion triggers by the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
In the footage, believed to have been shot at an event on Sunday Mr Rayner tells the audience that Labour ‘supports’ the International Criminal Court, which last week said it would seek the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu – and senior Hamas leaders – over claims of war crimes in Gaza.
She then warns them a Labour government would have ‘limited’ influence to change the situation, adding: ‘Qatar, Saudi Arabia, all of these people, we are all working to stop what’s happening at the moment, we want to see that.
‘I promise you that’s what we want to see. If Labour get into power we will recognise Palestine.’
It comes as Labour faces a major backlash from its Muslim voters over the party’s stance on Gaza. Sir Keir Starmer initially refused to back calls for a permanent ceasefire saying Israel had a right to defend itself.
Video circulating online shows the party’s deputy leader speaking to voters in her Ashton-under-Lyne seat and thanking them for getting her ‘over the line’ at the 2019 election.
She also lashed out at comments made by Reform UK president Nigel Farage on Sunday morning, in which he attacked the British Muslim population. She accused him of ‘stirring up division’, a stance echoed by Tories including minister Steve Baker.
Ms Rayner posted pictures of herself campaigning on Sunday in the same outfit.
The stance was blamed in part for Labour losing the Rochdale by-election to George Galloway earlier this year.
Ms Rayner’s majority in her Manchester seat is a vulnerable 4,263. And her comments on Palestine appear to go further than Sir Keir.
Earlier this week he said he wanted to recognise a Palestinian state if he won power, but caveated that such a move would need to come at the right time in a peace process.
Ireland, Spain and Norway will formally recognise a Palestinian today, a move that prompted an angry response from Israel. It said the move amounted to a ‘reward for terrorism’ and recalled its ambassadors from the three capitals.
In the video clip Ms Rayner also says she will commit UK aid to rebuilding Gaza.
‘That takes more than just recognising it. It takes resources, it takes infrastructure. it takes expertise – we need teachers, civil servants, we need all of the infrastructure,’ she said.
‘That’s a big job and I will push Labour to do our part in that with the international community. I’ve already spoken to ambassadors and people but that’s what Labour will do. I promise you I’ll do everything we can but I won’t say things that i can’t do.
She also lashed out at comments made by Reform UK president Nigel Farage on Sunday morning, in which he attacked the British Muslim population.
She accused him of ‘stirring up division’, a stance echoed by Tories including minister Steve Baker.
He hit back at her in a speech in Dover today, saying: ‘You might have noticed that Angela Rayner yesterday was campaigning in her constituency, begging, begging a group of Muslim leaders to please vote Labour, you will have noticed not a single woman in the room.
‘So we’re moving into an age in our inner cities and towns, I’m afraid, I’m worried to say, of sectarian politics with women completely excluded.’
His latest outburst came after he clashed with Richard Madeley today as the Good Morning Britain host challenged his controversial comments on Muslims by asking, ‘What on earth were you talking about?’
The Reform UK honorary president provoked a backlash on Sunday when he warned of the ‘growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values’ and ‘loathe much of what we stand for’.
He later clarified he was talking about Muslims.
Mr Madeley challenged the former UKIP leader on his comments this morning by quoting the findings of a major review of the existing polling carried out in 2018 by IPSOS Mori.
‘They found absolutely conclusively that Muslims in the UK attach more importance on being British than the general population,’ he said.
’85 per cent feel they truly belong to Britain, 55 per cent feel that their national identity as British is very important to them and that compares to 44 per cent of the general population. So I’m bound to ask, what on earth were you talking about there?’
In response, Mr Farage said he wanted to provide ‘context’ about what he said on Sunday in an interview with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.
He said: ‘What I said is that a growing number of young people do not subscribe to British values. In fact, despise them in many ways.
‘And all of your viewers would have seen the local elections where in parts of our inner cities we saw sectarian politics – people voting purely on religious lines, councillors getting elected and screaming Allahu Akbar…’
He then quoted recent polling by JL Partners commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society.
‘It showed that 23% of 18 to 24-year-old of young Muslims living in Britain think that jihad is a good thing,’ Mr Farage said.
‘Now that of course is not a British value in any way at all and its a very disturbing trend that’s particularly prevalent among the young.’
Mr Madeley replied: ‘The poll that you just quoted from has been very heavily criticised as self-selecting – people were basically drawn in through a series of clicks and by the time they were asked to register their opinion they had already made their minds up.
‘You also said in the interview that you could take someone to a particular street in Oldham and there would be nobody there who speaks English.
‘Well again that’s just not true – the Office of National Statistics say that only 0.7% of people in Oldham don’t speak English – that’s less than one in a hundred.’
Mr Farage said it was possible to ‘argue about numbers and statistics’ but it was ‘undoubtedly true’ that there is an increasing number of young people in Britain who ‘don’t only not subscribe to our values – they openly support Hamas’.