Labour leader cites Mahatma Gandhi to reunite divided party

LONDON : Riven by allegations of anti-semitism, infighting and conflicting views on key issues, the annual conference of the Labour Party was told to remember the words of Mahatma Gandhi and reunite to oppose the ruling Conservative Party.

Taking the floor on Tuesday evening, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry noted that it was 70 years since Gandhi’s assassination and 50 years since the killing of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy - “three men of peace, three men of hope, all shot dead because they believed in an alternative to violence and hatred and war”.

Recalling the basic principles of the Labour Party that was founded in 1900, she noted the dissensions and conflict within the party, and quoted Gandhi to urge the conference to reunite to face greater challenges facing the UK.

Thornberry said: “(If) we truly want to realise the dream of The Internationale to unite the human race, and reunite our country, then again we must start with uniting our own party, and ending the pointless conflicts which divide our movement, which poison our online debate, and which distract us from fighting the Tories.

“Because as Gandhi said: ‘We but mirror the world so if we could change ourselves, the world would also change.’ But if we can’t show the strength to change ourselves, to change the way we behave to each other, how can we ever hope to change the country, and aspire to change the world?”

Besides conflicting views among MPS and frontline leaders on issues such as Brexit, the Labour Party faces allegations that the hard-left group Momentum behind leader Jeremy Corbyn wields too much influence under his dispensation.

Most party MPS and members favour the UK remaining in the European Union but Tuesday’s announcement by shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer that the party would make remaining in the EU an option did not go down too well with those supporting Brexit.