Now leader’s ally linked to terror group

KEY Corbyn ally Tony Lloyd met senior Hamas members, it emerged last night.

The shadow Northern Ireland secretary was pictured meeting the group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas politician Ahmad Bahar in 2011.

Haniyeh was added to the US’s ‘terror list’ earlier this year. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation by the EU.

The US State Department says Haniyeh, who has been jailed several times, ‘poses a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism’. In 2016, Bahar called on others to follow in the footsteps of a terrorist who murdered a newly married police officer and a 60-year-old grandmother.

Mr Lloyd went on the £1,680 trip to Gaza and Egypt as a guest of the Council for European Palestinian Relations, which serves as Hamas’ representative in Europe. Labour last night declined to give an official response.