Did Sir Keir mislead a mosque?

In his eagerness to stand with Israel, it seems Sir Keir might have slipped up. For a fortnight now Labour has been rowing about his comments in an LBC interview in which Starmer seemed to justify a water and electricity blockade of Gaza. Since then, it’s been damage control galore, amid an exodus of outraged councillors quitting the party in disgust. Starmer is due to meet Muslim MPs today to discuss their concerns about all this.

The Keirleaders will just be hoping that today’s pow-wow goes better than Starmer’s previous peace mission. On Sunday he visited a mosque before sharing a selection of HQ-approved images of him shaking hands and flashing smiles, along with a tweet declaring that ‘I was grateful to hear from the Muslim community of the South Wales Islamic Centre. I repeated our calls for all hostages to be released, more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, for the water and power to be switched back on, and a renewed focus on the two state solution.