Hard-Left protest over tribute to brave Tessa

HARD-Left Labour members protested during a minute’s silence for tessa Jowell – because she was a Blairite.

One woman at the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency party in north London shouted that Baroness Jowell, pictured, had voted to ‘murder a lot of people’ by backing welfare reforms.

the incident happened two weeks ago, a few days after the death of the former Olympics minister from a brain tumour.

Her death at the age of 70 was commemorated in Parliament with emotional tributes from across the political spectrum, including from Labour’s Left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.

But in Hampstead, a small group of party activists refused to honour her memory, even though she served as a councillor at the local Camden town hall from 1971 to 1986.

One woman shouted that she would not respect the silence because Baroness Jowell had been an ally of former prime minister tony Blair.

Some activists at the meeting then declined to take part in the show of respect – and demanded a minute’s silence for Palestinians instead.

A source said: ‘there was quite a lot of heckling and one person shouted that tessa Jowell had voted for murders of lots of people. they instead wanted to hold a minute’s silence for Gaza.

‘It was pretty upsetting for people in the room who knew tessa well as she had a lot of connections to the area and was a member of the constituency party when she was a councillor.’

the party’s constituency secretary Helen Brown said: ‘the serious incident will not be ignored and shall be dealt with accordingly.’

Conservative Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom called the incident ‘hateful’ and stressed the need for greater tolerance in local politics.

ex-Camden councillor Phil Rosenberg said: ‘the standard of behaviour at Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency Labour Party has long ceased to be acceptable and it seems that a lack of discernible action from the Labour Party is allowing it to plumb new depths.’