MP ‘WAS NOT LISTENING’

LABOUR’S Shadow Human Rights Minister Andy Slaughter said he was “not listening” when Sir Gerald Kaufman made his controversial comments last week.

But the Hammersmith MP went on to refer twice to what Sir Gerald had said when he made his own speech minutes later.

Mr Slaughter was sitting three seats from Sir Gerald during the Palestine Return Centre event.

When the shadow minister spoke he said drone strikes showed the Israeli government would “take anybody out, young people, could be people who are just going about their ordinary business, and then, as Gerald said, fabricate, invent a reason as to why you land a drone strike or you then shell, or what have you”.

He also referred to part of Sir Gerald’s speech about Conservative MPs and said: “Gerald was right to say that there is little — little but very good — support from the Tory benches. We had about 40 Tory MPs, 30 or 40 who voted for the Palestinian recognition.”

Following the outrage over Sir Gerald’s remarks, Mr Slaughter ( below) repeatedly distanced himself from the comments. His spokesman said on Monday that the shadow minister “was not listening to Sir Gerald’s speech because he was preparing his own remarks and was unaware of the comments in question until raised by the JC. “Mr Slaughter did acknowledge Sir Gerald in his speech but did not endorse those

comments.”