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Labour and the Tories have become embroiled in a war of words after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, defended Israel’s decision to deny two MPs entry into the country and deport them.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, criticised the decision to expel the Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, and said he had taken the matter up with the Israeli government.
He was subsequently angered by Badenoch’s comment that “every country should be able to control its borders”, which was also contradicted by one of her shadow ministers.
Speaking about the deportation of Mohamed and Yang, who were part of an MPs’ delegation coming to visiting humanitarian aid projects and communities in the West Bank with UK charity partners, the Conservative leader said: “I think that every country should be able to control its borders, and that’s what Israel is doing, as far as I understand.”
Badenoch told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme she understood they “were coming in to do something that they were not allowed to do, and so I respect that decision”.
In response, Lammy wrote on X: “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.”
The Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who is chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told Sky News she was “completely gobsmacked” by the Tory leader’s comments, adding: “This is nonsense. You have to stand up for what’s right, Kemi Badenoch, and you should stand in solidarity with other parliamentarians who were just going to Israel and the West Bank to find out what was going on.”
On X, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, accused Badenoch of “unbelievably poor judgment” and “another complete shocker”.
But Badenoch hit back at Lammy on X, saying: “Unlike China, Israel is our ally and a democracy. A good foreign sec 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.”
However, Richard Fuller, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, took a very different stance. “Any member of parliament who goes on an official trip should be, I would think, welcomed in any country,” he told Times Radio
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“They’re going there to be better informed about the situation and then report back to their parliamentary colleagues about what they have found.”
Asked whether he was concerned over an “increasingly authoritarian tone being taken” by some countries, Fuller replied: “I think we should all be very worried about democracy. Democracy isn’t a guarantee in life. Freedom isn’t guaranteed.”
Thornberry said it was the first time Israel had ever refused British MPs access to the country. Yang and Mohamed were part of a delegation organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map), which said they had run such trips to the occupied West Bank for more than a decade.
While Israel’s assault on Gaza after the 7 October 2023 has been the focus of international attention, its airstrikes on the West Bank have killed 261 Palestinians and 40,000 have been forced from their homes, according to the Palestinian-Israeli rights group B’tselem.
