Letters: Labour’s hypocrisy opens a gap—but we need to do more

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Readers write on the West's hypocrisy over Palestine, how the Supreme Court ruling harms us all, the assualt on the NHS and hunger strikes

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Tuesday 27 May 2025

Issue 2957

Hypocrits Keir Starmer and David Lammy have been silent for 19 months

After 77 years of displacement and killing of Palestinians. After two years of a genocide broadcasted on our phones day after day. The West has finally stated that “Israel had gone too far”.

The Labour government decided to pause the British-Israeli trade deal, claiming, “Israel’s actions are intolerable.” Keir Starmer has said, “We are horrified by the escalation from Israel.”

This is blatant hypocrisy.

Britain has been one of the main suppliers of resources and political support for Zionism since its origins.

Britain created the original colonial state that took over Palestine.

The genocide has been going for years.

This change is about public opinion, and how much the governments that support Israel are losing their legitimacy.

Binyamin Netanyahu stated, “When mass murderers and baby killers thank you, you are on the wrong side of history”.

I would actually say that, for the first time, what they are doing now is the opposite of supporting mass murderers and baby killers.

But, beyond the hypocrisy, we need to understand that this is a victory for the movement.

We are putting so much pressure on them from the streets, that the government feels obligated to oppose to the terrorist regime.

Now, our argument is being validated and reaching the average person, who just works and watches the BBC. And we can grow on that.

A wider gap is opening up for us to win more people to our side. But we need to push for more people on the streets, more action and more pressure.

The Socialist Workers Party was founded saying, “Zionism is an apartheid regime with the goals of ethnic cleansing Palestine.” This is what being on the right side of history means.

Luis, north London

Supreme Court ruling hurts us all

The Supreme Court’s transphobic ruling on gender isn’t just affecting trans+ people.

Labour’s Women’s Conference has been cancelled due to the threat of legal challenges should they allow in attendees who aren’t “biological women”.

Keir Starmer’s incessant yapping about “clarity” was echoed by a Labour spokesperson. If this ruling was so “clear”, why is the best option to bin the whole conference?

The Labour Women’s Network (LWN), chaired by gender-critical ex-MP Thangham Debbonaire, isn’t happy about the cancellation. Perhaps they’d prefer the outright banning of trans+ people.

LWN states membership is open to “self-defined women”. But they’ve walked this back to mean “biological sex”, following the party’s lurch to the right. What a disgrace.

Trans+ people must always be at the centre of this issue. But if anyone needed further proof that when one group’s rights are stripped away all of our rights are stripped away, here it is.

Oonagh, north London

Government failing mothers and babies

A recent report from multiple baby charities shows that the government and the NHS are failing mothers and babies.

If targets for maternal and neonatal care had been met, up to 2,500 babies could have been saved in the last seven years.

There were as many as 565 stillbirths in 2023 that could have been stopped.

Too many people are suffering the insurmountable physical and mental trauma of dangerous pregnancies, births and of losing a child. The Tories gutted the NHS and Keir Starmer’s Labour are only continuing the assault.

By pandering to racism and removing care workers, and by cutting welfare spending, Starmer is putting people’s lives at risk.

Multiple NHS maternity and neonatal units are already under investigation for widespread failings.

This is not the failure of a few doctors and nurses. It is a structural problem of government failures

Julia Ryder, Worcestershire