Far-left Labour activists disrupt minute’s silence for Tessa Jowell as she was Tony Blair’s ally
FAR-LEFT Labour activists reportedly disrupted a minute’s silence for Tessa Jowell because she was a close ally of Tony Blair.
Some members of the party’s Hampstead and Kilburn branch are said to have opposed the room standing to commemorate the late ex-Cabinet minister, who died of cancer earlier this month.
And they then called for a rival minute’s silence for the victims of Gaza instead after muttering through the attempt to mark the life of the Baroness and former Culture Secretary.
The 70-year-old, widely credited with helping make the London 2012 Olympics in London such a success, suffered a brain haemorrhage on May 11, and died the following day after a battle with brain cancer.
Her daughter-in-law Ella Mills, founder of Deliciously Ella, said she would "live forever in the centre of their souls".
After being diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour in May last year, she campaigned for more experimental treatments to be available for cancer sufferers in the last months of her life.
But at a meeting last week of the branch in North London, which is divided between a group of Labour moderates and leftie Corbynistas, there was disquiet at helping celebrate her achievements.
Richard Osley from the Camden New Journal wrote: “Sources said they were distressed to hear muttering and mumbling as the peace was broken during this time for reflection.
“Some with unwilling to take part at all in marking the passing of a politician who had worked closely with Tony Blair.
“Members, by several accounts, then asked for another's minute of silence, after a call of 'what about the people of Gaza' rang out; the meeting was a couple of days after the border shootings by Israeli forces.”
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After Baroness Jowell’s death MPs from across the political divide paid tribute to her in a special debate in the House of Commons
Theresa May led the tributes in Parliament, describing her as a “most extraordinary politician, colleague and campaigner”.
And a £40million brain cancer research fund was set up in her name, while the Prime Minister also committed to a UK roll-out of a brain cancer diagnosis test using dye to identify tumours, plus fuller drug trials for the disease which kills around 5,250 Brits a year.