A protester disrupted chancellor Rachel Reeves’ keynote speech on the second day of the Labour conference in Liverpool, in protest against the new government’s support for polluters and arms sales to Israel. Shockingly, security can be seen getting the guy in a chokehold in an attempt to remove him from the conference floor.
Campaigners argue that donations from polluting industries and Israel lobbyists to the Labour Party are to blame for the government’s inaction.
Labour conference sees its first disruptor
The activists from campaign group Climate Resistance infiltrated the Labour conference audience. They unfurled a banner reading “Still backing polluters, still arming Israel – we voted for change”.
“We are still selling arms to Israel! I thought we voted for change, Rachel!” the protestor shouted.
He was violently apprehended by the security and removed from the Labour conference:
Lobbying at the heart of government
The Labour government has come under pressure over its stance on both polluting industries and arms companies. It has refused to suspend 90% of the UK’s licences for the sale of arms to Israel, despite the ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into “War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity” and calls for arrest warrants on both Israel’s president, Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Gallant.
According to a recent investigation, half of the Labour cabinet has accepted funding from pro-Israel lobbyists.
In February, Rachel Reeves herself scrapped Labour’s proposed £28 billion green investment fund, shortly after accepting a £10,000 donation from Lord Donoghue, a prominent climate sceptic and former chairman of the climate-denying Global Warming Policy Foundation.
The party has also refused to revoke oil and gas licences handed out by the Tories, including for the controversial Rosebank oil field, commit to phasing out subsidies for Drax, the UK’s single largest carbon emitter. Drax has donated to the party and is a major sponsor at the Labour conference.
Labour conference: where’s the change?
Sam Simons, spokesperson for Climate Resistance, said after the Labour conference incident:
Labour promised us change – instead we’re getting more of the same. The same pandering to the fossil fuel industry; the same arms licences that are fuelling a genocide in Gaza, and the same austerity that sees the poorest hit hardest.
It’s time for Labour to start putting the needs of people before the interests of profit. That means immediately stopping arms licences to Israel, blocking new oil and gas, and standing up for the communities already being devastated by the climate crisis.
Half of the Labour cabinet took cash from Israel lobbyists and Rachel Reeves herself didn’t shy away from taking money from a known climate denier. How can we trust this government to take the urgent action we need to prevent both escalating genocide and climate breakdown when they’re so clearly in the pockets of fossil fuel and arms companies?
Featured image via BBC iPlayer – screengrab
