Zarah Sultana’s chances of regaining Labour whip diminished after Albanese meeting

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) March 17, 2025

Labour Friends of Israel condemned the decision by Sultana – a frequent critic of Israel – to meet Albanese.

The group’s director Michael Rubin told the JC: "Albanese has drawn comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, said the violence of October 7 must be ‘put in context’, and claimed America is ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby’. Posing for smiling photos with her is yet another reminder of exactly why Sultana is not fit to be a Labour MP."

A senior Labour source told the JC that the MP for Coventry South’s prospects of returning to the party were reduced because of the meeting.

“This doesn’t exactly help her chances of ever getting the Labour Whip back”, they said.

Last month, several MPs who in July last year rebelled with Sultana against the government had the Labour Whip restored.

Sultana, along with former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum, remained suspended pending further review.

During the course of her suspension, Sultana gave an interview to the Big Issue and accused the Labour government of being complicit in “genocide”.

She also indicated she would likely rebel against the government in the future if she were to have the Labour whip restored to her.

“I would want to be in a Labour Party that wasn’t complicit in genocide, that wasn’t selling arms, that wasn’t pushing austerity politics. And therefore as someone who’s still a member of the Labour Party, and hopefully a Labour MP, I have to do everything I can to take the party away from those positions. Otherwise I think I’m just giving up any responsibility,” she said.

At Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Sultana accused Israel of “collective punishment” and repeated accusations of “genocide” in Gaza, in light of Israel’s decision to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip, comments that Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson refused to endorse.

On the anniversary of October 7, Starmer rebuked the anti-Israel MP after she failed to mention Hamas and urged the prime minister to “end the government's complicity in war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel”.

The prime minister said her suggestion “on the anniversary of October 7 and days after a huge attack by Iran into Israel would be the wrong position for this government.”

Sultana, who was first elected to Parliament in 2019, caused controversy during her days as a student activist.

The JC reported that Sultana had taunted the departing vice president of the National Union of Students by claiming he did not "serve Israel as well as you would've liked” and suggested that ex-NUS official Joe Vinson should move to Israel after he spoke out about antisemitism and support for the BDS movement.

Around the same time, Sultana said she had “been on a journey" and had been "working closely with Jewish comrades who have taught me about the language and history of antisemitism” and cited a trip to Auschwitz in 2013 as helping with this learning process.

In January this year, the Board of Deputies called on the government to demand Albanese’s sacking as the UN’s independent expert for Palestinian human rights following a now-deleted post on X in which she expressed support for anti-Israel academic David Miller.

The Board of Deputies said: “The UN’s ‘Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories’, Francesca Albanese has a history of highly inflammatory statements about Israel and Jews.

“Now, she has publicly supported notorious conspiracy theorist and employee of the Iranian regime’s Press TV, David Miller.”

The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.