Polanski heckled as he declares himself an anti-Zionist at byelection hustings
Morning, and welcome to our UK politics live blog.
Zack Polanski declared himself an anti-Zionist and faced heckling at a Jewish community hustings in Holborn and St Pancras, where the Green party leader is standing as a candidate in next month’s byelection.
He said Zionism – the movement for a Jewish state – was a form of racism because it involved the displacement and genocide of Palestinians. His remarks were met with boos from the audience last night.
“I’m an anti-Zionist. I think countries have always been ideas and I think things change over time,” he said.
Polanski, who is Jewish, said criticising the Israeli government and the occupation of Palestinian land was not antisemitic. “We need to come together to recognise that when we call that antisemitic, we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe,” he added.
As the Green party prepares for its annual conference, members are due to vote on a motion to declare Zionism as a form of racism in official policy. As my colleague Peter Walker reported last week, some in the party fear it could alienate Jewish supporters if it passed:
A Green official said that many activists loyal to the party’s leadership might not be at the autumn conference because it takes place a week before voting in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, in which Polanski hopes to take Keir Starmer’s old seat from Labour, potentially leaving more scope for others to push through the motion.
“The risk is that if it passes as it is we are alienating ourselves from the Jewish community in the UK, a lot of whom are not big fans of the current Israeli government,” a Green source said.
There was, they added, a parallel worry about internal splits, with some Green activists in leaked WhatsApp chats warning that Polanski was “struggling to overcome Zionist indoctrination”.
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Key events
The communications and governance director of Glasgow city council has said it was in a “hellish situation” as he blamed Unison for a decision to force workers onto new contracts, which involves the fire and rehire 23,000 workers across the city and about 11% of staff seeing their wages cut.
PA Media reports Colin Edgar said “It’s extremely difficult. We haven’t taken this decision lightly. We absolutely do not want to do this. Two of our trade unions were together with us on a plan to not do this. One of them was not.”
The council has been in negotiations with unions over its plans to implement a new pay and grading system after the previous one was found to discriminate mostly against female workers.
Trade union spokespeople have vigorously disagreed. Sylvia Haughney, Glasgow education convener at Unison, said the council’s claims that it was to blame for the situation were “misleading” and “false”. She said the policy of fire and rehire was “utterly immoral”, “shockingly deplorable” and that most of the staff receiving pay cuts were women.
Unite industrial officer Graham McNabb said: “Glasgow City Council must remove direct threats to our membership in its proposed new pay and grading structure whether it is through cuts to terms and conditions, or the scandalous threat of fire and rehire tactics. If they go down this reckless path then it will be met with the full force of Unite.”
The new Labour party leader in Wales, Ken Skates, has been speaking to PA Media ahead of the party conference, saying that he does not believe Labour is a spent political force in Wales, despite the poor showing in the most recent Senedd election.
He told the agency:
Building a party of the future that is forward-looking, ambitious, exciting, and puts the power that needs to go to people right at the centre of everything we do, it’s not going to be a sprint.
This is a marathon. I’m a runner myself like Andy Burnham is, and I’m determined to make sure that we recover in time for the next election, and that we are in decent health next May for the local elections.
Skates said he believed that the Burnham administration plans to devolve power would offer voters a choice, between Labour being “clearly the party of devolution” and Plaid Cymru being instead “the party of independence and central control from Cardiff Bay.”
Grant Shapps, the former Conservative defence secretary, has warned government cuts to the Homes for Ukraine Scheme may “send the wrong message to [Vladimir] Putin” that the West is wavering in its support for Kyiv.
From 1 January, payments to refugee hosts will fall from £350 to £100 a month, while council funding per arrival will drop from £5,900 to £3,300.
“What worries me about this announcement is that it might inadvertently send the wrong message to Putin and others that the west is somehow wavering, that we’re losing interest, that our attention has gone elsewhere, which is the calculation that he has always wanted and tried to make, and and that would be the concern,” Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
Diane Taylor has this report on how the changes will affect Ukrainian refugees in the UK, with some fearing that they could be left homeless:
Nataliya Rumyantseva is hosting her mother, the first Ukrainian to arrive in the UK after the war started. She said the changes were likely to have a significant impact.
“When refugees arrive here from Ukraine, they are shellshocked and need time to adapt and learn the language. If hosting changes to become a more commercial rental arrangement, I think that’s cruel.”
One host who lives in Greenwich said he did not know if he would be able to continue hosting because of the drop in payments. “I’ve been a sponsor since May 2022. I was dismayed to learn that thank you payments are reducing to just £100,” he said.
“I lost my job within months of becoming a sponsor and these payments have become an absolute lifeline even though I did not volunteer for this scheme for the money. I genuinely worry about the consequences of this change for Ukrainians in the UK.”
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Our political correspondent, Alexandra Topping, has this profile on Sagal Abdi-Wali, the Camden council leader and Labour’s candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras byelection:
Sagal Abdi-Wali does not want to be the prime minister. She doesn’t even want to lead her party. Labour’s candidate for Holborn and St Pancras laughs and shakes her head with unusual vigour when asked if she would like to follow in the footsteps of the last member of parliament for the constituency, Keir Starmer.
“No, no, no, no, that’s not at all, in any way, what I’m trying to do,” she says during a break in campaigning in the Primrose Hill cafe in Regent’s Park. “I’m literally trying to get through the next few weeks and trying to be the member of parliament for this constituency, and that’s all I care about.”
It’s a message the 42-year-old leader of Camden council returns to with ruthless discipline ahead of a byelection on 8 October. It is plastered all over her campaigning material and brought up by every door-knocking Labour activist – every mention an implicit comparison between herself and her high-profile opponent Zack Polanski.
“All I’ve done, all my life, is be a committed champion for people here,” says Abdi-Wali. “Whether it’s volunteering as a teenager or being a councillor, and all the work I did in between, that’s all I’ve ever done. All I want to be is someone who will be visible and local and committed every single day.”
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Richard Osley, the editor of the Camden New Journal, was at the hustings last night. Here is his take (as posted on X):
Overall tonight was another hustings where most of the audience will have known who they were going to vote before they took their seats – one of the questions from the floor was asked by a Labour councillor.
It was a space for attendees to make it clear to Zack Polanski how very much they disagree with him on Israel and Palestine – and how they feel offended by his views.
But the fact we have this unusual flip where the coverage is being shared by both his opponents AND his supporters probably means he might feel this uncomfortable evening for him wasn’t a waste of time.
The floor of the Green Party conference next month might be a different kind of challenge.
Polanski backing amendments to tone down ‘Zionism is racism’ motion – Sky
Zack Polanski is reportedly backing two amendments that would tone down the ‘Zionism is racism’ motion, according to Sky News.
As reported by the Guardian’s senior political correspondent, Peter Walker, the motion calls for “a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants”, and says the Palestinian people have the full right to “resistance and liberation from Israeli occupation, domination and subjugation” within international law.
If passed, Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism” by the party, it adds.
Sky News reported that the amendments, which have been selected for a vote at the Green party conference next week, “pushback on the call for a single Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and add safeguards for Jewish members who are part of groups that describe themselves as Zionist”.
In other developments:
Foreign secretary Ed Miliband told his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, that Britain will “not tolerate intimidation, threats or hostile activity on UK soil”. The comments were made during a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, Foreign Office said. The pair discussed the war in the Middle East, the strait of Hormuz crisis and the UK’s “unwavering resolve to combat threats from Iranian-linked groups in UK soil”, according to a readout of the meeting.
Advisers in No 10 are pushing for the prime minister to call an early election as part of an attempt to keep Labour in power, according to the Telegraph. The newspaper reported senior members of Andy Burnham’s team believe calling an election in spring would give the party the best chance of winning another majority.
Defence companies and critical infrastructure providers will be briefed on the threat posed by Russia and its proxies, including cyber attacks, sabotage and disinformation targeting organisations vital to Ukraine’s defence. The government announced security minister Dan Jarvis and Armed Forces minister Louise Sandher-Jones will chair closed-door meetings with industry leaders in the coming weeks.
Polanski heckled as he declares himself an anti-Zionist at byelection hustings
Morning, and welcome to our UK politics live blog.
Zack Polanski declared himself an anti-Zionist and faced heckling at a Jewish community hustings in Holborn and St Pancras, where the Green party leader is standing as a candidate in next month’s byelection.
He said Zionism – the movement for a Jewish state – was a form of racism because it involved the displacement and genocide of Palestinians. His remarks were met with boos from the audience last night.
“I’m an anti-Zionist. I think countries have always been ideas and I think things change over time,” he said.
Polanski, who is Jewish, said criticising the Israeli government and the occupation of Palestinian land was not antisemitic. “We need to come together to recognise that when we call that antisemitic, we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe,” he added.
As the Green party prepares for its annual conference, members are due to vote on a motion to declare Zionism as a form of racism in official policy. As my colleague Peter Walker reported last week, some in the party fear it could alienate Jewish supporters if it passed:
A Green official said that many activists loyal to the party’s leadership might not be at the autumn conference because it takes place a week before voting in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, in which Polanski hopes to take Keir Starmer’s old seat from Labour, potentially leaving more scope for others to push through the motion.
“The risk is that if it passes as it is we are alienating ourselves from the Jewish community in the UK, a lot of whom are not big fans of the current Israeli government,” a Green source said.
There was, they added, a parallel worry about internal splits, with some Green activists in leaked WhatsApp chats warning that Polanski was “struggling to overcome Zionist indoctrination”.
Read more:
