Rayner Pleads With Muslim Voters as Pressure From Galloway Grows
Guido has obtained a leaked tape from inside a meeting between Angela Rayner and Muslim voters in Ashton-under-Lyne, held along with the recently ennobled Labour peer and former mayor, Lord Khan of Burnley. As George Galloway keeps up his campaign to remove Rayner from the seat by weaponising the Muslim vote, the deputy leader pleads for their support and says she only won the seat in the last election thanks to them:
“2019 was a very difficult year in Ashton. My voters were very upset with the Labour Party: I was with you and you saw me over the line. You supported me. In seats that are similar to mine people lost their seat – you were there for me and I don’t believe I could have done that without you.”
Rayner goes on to try to convince the community to lend their help by stressing that Labour and she personally can be trusted on Gaza and that the fault for the lack of a ceasefire rests on the “international community”:
“If me resigning as an MP now would bring the ceasefire I would do it… we can’t affect anything when we’re not in government. I’ll be honest with you, if Labour get into government we are limited… Biden who’s the US who has way more influence has only got limited influence in this. And Qatar, Saudi Arabia, all of these people we are all working to stop what’s happening at the moment – we want to see that, so I promise you that’s what we want to see and if Labour get into power we will recognise Palestine.”
She puts her own spin on Starmer’s line last week that Palestine should be recognised at some point “as part of a peace process”:
“I will push to recognise it: there is nothing to recognise at the moment, sadly. It’s decimated. We have to rebuild Palestine, we have to rebuild Gaza.”
That’s a justification for Labour’s current policy to push for recognition after a deal is secured as opposed to before. Is “there is nothing to recognise” the official Labour line?