A Lambeth Labour Councillor who was suspended for voting for a ceasefire in Gaza has now resigned her seat after a six hour meeting – which she said was a “trial” – with local Labour Group chiefs. She described it as “the most hostile, aggressive and humiliating environment I have ever encountered n my 10 years as a Labour Councillor.”

Veteran Windrush and anti-racism campaigner Sonia Winifred resigned her seat in Knights Hill ward in the South London borough, which she has held since May 2014. In a powerful resignation statement, she declared that she no longer had any confidence in the Leadership of Lambeth Council. He suspension is all the more bizarre as her stance was in line with the supposed Labour position nationally.

Local Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy tweeted: “It’s an absolute disgrace that she felt forced out for supporting what is now stated Labour policy: an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”

Also expressing her outrage at Winifred’s suspension was Diane Abbott MP, herself suspended from the Party, who has previously said: “As a Black woman, and someone on the left of the Labour Party, I have unfortunately been forced to reach the conclusion that I will not get a fair hearing from this Labour leadership.”

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington tweeted: “Shocked to hear that you have been disciplined because of your position on Gaza. On that basis not a single Labour councillor would have dared breathe a word about apartheid in the 80s.”

Shadow minister Flo Eshalomi also expressed dismay at the decision.

Winifred was one of four Labour Councillors in Lambeth who lost the whip over the decision to vote for a ceasefire. One of them, Martin Abrams, who is Jewish,  said the issue was “a matter of conscience” for him.

Abrams had the Labour whip indefinitely suspended by the Council Labour Group, which declared the motion “divisive”. This has been the pretext used by Labour officials to suppress discussion across the Party of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – as if it were somehow controversial to oppose the mass slaughter of innocent children.  

The Lambeth suspensions came a week after Hackney’s Labour group suspended four of its councillors. Other councils have adopted a ceasefire position, often unanimously, with no disciplinary measures resulting.

Meanwhile the situation in Gaza is deteriorating sharply, with Palestinians eating grass and animal feed to try to survive the Israeli blockade on food aid deliveries. Children are starving to death. At least 30,000 Palestinians have died.

But the overwhelmingly peaceful protests against this deliberate humanitarian catastrophe have repeatedly been demonised by government minsters as extremist “hate marches”. Last week, the Prime Minister claimed, while offering no actual evidence,  there had been “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” after the 7th October massacre by Hamas and the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Labour MP for Wansbeck Ian Lavery dismissed Sunak’s diatribe as “ deranged”. Momentum denounced the Prime Minister’s outburst, saying: “This is nothing less than an assault on our democratic right to protest.”

They also highlighted the worrying tendency of the Labour leadership to go along with the government’s increasing authoritarianism, tweeting: “It is outrageous that Labour is supporting the Tories’ latest attack on our democratic freedoms.”

Momentum are campaigning for Labour to repeal the Public Order Act, the Police Crime and Sentencing Act and other authoritarian Tory laws, under the banner ‘Restore our democratic freedoms’.

Owen Jones noted: “The government knows there tend to be fewer arrests at demonstrations against Israel’s onslaught than at last year’s Glastonbury music festival. This is despite an array of anti-protest laws so draconian they have been condemned by the United Nations’ human rights chief.”

In a new nadir of ludicrous scaremongering, the government’s counter-extremism commissioner today claimed London has become a “no-go zone for Jews” during weekend pro-Palestinian marches. Robin Simcox urged ministers to “be bolder” in tackling extremism.

Diane Abbott MP said the idea that Jews were frightened to come into London on pro-Palestinian march days was “lies”.

Simcox’s preposterous outburst ignores the fact that large number of Jewish people have themselves demonstrated both on the regular Stop the War/Palestine Solidarity Campaign marches and in other protests for a Gaza ceasefire.

This deliberate misrepresentation comes days after government advisor Lord Walney said police should get extra powers to tackle protests outside Parliament and other democratic venues.

Tens of thousands will again march peacefully tomorrow, Saturday March 9^th, for a ceasefire in Gaza, a position now supported by two-thirds of the UK public.  Labour members will join the trade union bloc, meeting at the Hilton Hotel, 22 Park Lane from 11.30am.