Thread by @JewishNewsUK

🚨Exclusive🚨

Labour leader Sir @Keir_Starmer was forced to postpone a scheduled visit to Israel with shadow foreign secretary @lisanandy after he tested positive for Covid last month, Jewish News can reveal.

jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lisa-nandy-int…

In a wide-ranging interview, the shadow foreign secretary discloses new plans to visit the Jewish state.

She also explains why she defends Israeli envoy @TzipiHotovely's right to speak - while having ‘robust’ exchanges with her on policy.

jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lisa-nandy-int…

“I was particularly keen to visit @yadvashem.

“@Keir_Starmer was also really keen to make the visit to Israel as well. One of the other things we have planned to do was to meet with young Israelis and Palestinians

“That generation, I think, often gets drowned out in the debate”

After expressing “heartbreak” over the murder of 26 year-old Eli Kay in Jerusalem on Sunday, Nandy said she wished to make it “absolutely clear” Labour under Starmer and herself had “no time for #Hamas.”

jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lisa-nandy-int…

Earlier this month Nandy had been quick out of the blocks to condemn the small group of hardcore anti-Israel activists who had attempted to stop the Israeli ambassador from taking part in a debate on the LSE campus.

https://twitter.com/lisanandy/status/1458404080792096774

jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lisa-nandy-int…

“I had seen the messages circulating on social media that were designed to frighten and intimidate her from being able to speak

“I’d also seen the images of her being chased to her car by a small number of people on the demo, with security having to act"

"People have every right to protest peacefully, but she (Hotovely) also has the right to speak without fearing violence or intimidation.

“But some of the people who praised me for saying this were the very same people who attacked me for going to the debate about #BDS.”

Nandy also responded to Starmer's speech to Labour Friends of Israel, in which he gave a damning critique of “anti-Zionist antisemitism”. She she “didn’t disagree with a word” he said.

jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lisa-nandy-int…

On regaining the community's trust, she said “I think Keir has shown, especially with his work around antisemitism, and with the rule changes at conference that he is serious.

“I think we have come a long way in a short time."

"With no disrespect to Ed Miliband for the first time in decades I think we have a candidate who people can imagine becoming PM

“The public are entitled to look to us as a party that is serious about winning power & is relentless in our pursuit of power in order to change lives"