UK

Full list of general election candidates who have backed Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s six demands

Chris Jarvis 

Yesterday

LEFT FOOT FORWARD


Find out who has signed up

Campaign group Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has revealed which parliamentary candidates have signed up to its general election demands.

The group is calling for candidates to support the following positions in relation to the ongoing situation in Gaza:

An immediate ceasefire

Restoration of funding to UNRWA

An embargo on arms sales to Israel

Support for the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to uphold international humanitarian law

Suspending trade agreements with Israel

Protecting the right to protest, boycott and divest from companies that are complicit in violations of international law

PSC has been encouraging its supporters to write to parliamentary candidates asking them to respond to these demands. PSC has collected responses from more than 700 candidates and determined whether they have supported the six demands.

Members of the public can see which of the candidates in their seat have responded to the demands, what they said in their response, and whether they have agreed to support them using PSC’s online tool.

At the time of writing, 750 parliamentary candidates had responded to correspondence from PSC supporters, with 532 of those being willing to agree to all six of their demands.

The Green Party of England and Wales tops the table for the political party with the most candidates to score six out of six against PSC’s demands. 240 of them have backed all the demands – nearly eight times more than any other party. Among the high profile Green candidates to do so are the party’s current co-leader and Bristol Central candidate Carla Denyer, former party co-leader and Brighton Pavilion candidate Sian Berry and North Herefordshire candidate Ellie Chowns.

While more Liberal Democrat candidates responded to PSC supporters, the Workers Party of Britain is the party with the second highest number of candidates signing up to all six demands. 41 Workers Party candidates backed the demands.

29 Liberal Democrats have been scored six out of six for their responses, although none of these were MPs in the last parliament.

As for the two big parties, 20 Labour candidates agreed to all six of the positions set out by PSC. Among the Labour candidates to commit to them are key figures on the left of the party, including Andy McDonald, Apsana Begum, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Cat Smith, Dianne Abbott, John McDonnell, Nadia Whittome, Richard Burgon and Zarah Sultana. They’re joined by other Labour candidates not typically seen as being on the left of the party including Jess Phillips, Kate Hollern, Naz Shah and Yasmin Qureshi.

Meanwhile, just two Tory candidates signed up to all six of PSC’s demands – Conservative Friends of Palestine founder Flick Drummond and the former MP for Warrington South Andy Carter.

Lots of candidates for parties who only stand in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland have backed all six pledges. 19 SNP candidates, 16 Scottish Green Party candidates, 11 Sinn Fein candidates, nine Plaid Cymru candidates, four SDLP candidates, three Alba candidates and one Alliance candidate backed the six demands.

Of the smaller parties, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition had the most candidates sign up to all six demands, at 21. Five Communist Party candidates backed the demands, as did five Yorkshire Party candidates, three Reform UK candidates and three Socialist Labour Party Candidates

A total of 75 independent candidates supported the six PSC demands, including the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour MP Claudia Webbe, Chingford and Woodford Green candidate Faiza Shaheen, and former ANC MP in South Africa Andrew Feinstein.

Speaking on the publication of the responses, Ben Jamal – PSC’s Director – said: “In this election we won’t let politicians carry on as if Palestinian lives don’t matter. Our support for Palestinian rights is based on a progressive set of values that we want to help shape voters’ choices in the polling booth.

“We need to see politicians elected who embrace those values and will stand up for them in Parliament. By sending our demands to candidates and making clear to them that their responses will affect how people vote, we are taking the issue of justice for the Palestinian people right to the heart of this general election.”

PSC is encouraging its supporters to continue writing to their parliamentary candidates around their six demands. Members of the public can do so using PSC’s online tool.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward