Tom Tugendhat has been accused of a "disgraceful slur" in the House of Commons after suggesting that a Labour minister might want to "side with Hamas" during a statement on the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Thursday.
The shadow foreign secretary was replying to Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty, who had announced £5m for Unicef's winter response in Gaza and described Israel's restrictions on aid as "shameful". Labour MPs shouted "shame" and the Deputy Speaker, Nusrat Ghani, intervened to calm both sides of the House, according to Jewish News.
The row sets the two front benches against each other over tone as much as policy. Doughty and Tugendhat both condemned Hamas and both condemned blockages of aid, but the remark aimed at a minister sitting on the government bench prompted calls from Labour for the shadow foreign secretary to withdraw and criticism from the Liberal Democrats.
Jewish News reported that Tugendhat directed his words at Melanie Ward, the Scotland Office minister and former chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, who was seated next to Doughty. He said: "If she wants to side with Hamas, she's welcome to. But if she wishes to stand with the Palestinian people, she should recognise what Hamas has done."
Politics.co.uk reported that Ward responded with "Shame on you!". Jewish News said she pointed at Tugendhat as other Labour MPs shouted "shame".
Doughty said he was "disappointed" by the "tone of the shadow foreign secretary" and urged him to "consider withdrawing". He said Tugendhat had not addressed "what actions need to take place to actually alleviate the suffering in Gaza".
The minister rejected any suggestion of sympathy for Hamas on the government benches. Hamas "must play no part in the future government of Gaza, and indeed they must disarm," he said. He insisted that "no one" on the Labour side supports Hamas, according to Jewish News.
At the end of the session Labour MP Sarah Smith raised a point of order saying Tugendhat had "acted shamefully". She said he had "first suggested an honourable member was siding with Hamas, a proscribed terror organisation – a disgraceful slur which the right honourable member needs to withdraw".
Alan Gemmell, another Labour MP, condemned "infantile comments from the shadow foreign secretary slurring members of this government".
Monica Harding, the Liberal Democrats' international development spokesperson, criticised "the shadow minister's appalling comments… and his inability to meet the moment and do what the public are asking us to do about Gaza". Her colleague Danny Chambers said he was "genuinely shocked that the shadow foreign secretary would use a horrific humanitarian crisis in an attempt to score cheap political points".
Tugendhat's wider response placed responsibility for conditions in Gaza on Hamas, which he called an "Iranian-funded and armed terror group". He said he shared "the simple horror that I think the whole House shares at the suffering and cruelty inflicted on so many by so few" and that the Conservatives "condemn the blockages of aid getting into the territory".
"And just look at their record on aid… what have we seen for it? Well, we've seen the vile indoctrination of hatred, the control of food and services to achieve dictatorial compliance, and we've seen the biggest network of tunnels built to prepare for war," he said.
In his statement, Doughty cited UN figures for 150,000 tents and 300,000 tarpaulins bought by humanitarian partners and donors that he said were outside Gaza and ready to enter. "I have a very simple and direct message to the Israeli authorities: let the aid in," he said.
Whether Tugendhat withdrew the remark, and how the Deputy Speaker ruled on the point of order, is not yet clear. Tugendhat and the Conservative Party have been approached for comment, as have Ward and the Foreign Office.
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