You were right, Miliband tells Palestine solidarity movement

But campaigners warned that the Foreign Secretary's ‘silence on Palestine Action and on the government’s attack on the right to protest is in danger of appearing hypocritical’

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Trying to draw a line under the most obnoxious aspect of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of Labour, Mr Miliband won an emotional ovation from Labour conference delegates in Liverpool for his concession to the mass movement.

Following on from his announcement of sanctions against Israel over its illegal West Bank settlement expansion earlier this month, Mr Miliband went further.

He said: “I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: “We hear you. You were right. We have reset our approach.

“We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank. We call out the evidence of war crimes In Gaza.

“We call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. And we match words with actions.

“We will ban the import of goods from illegal settlements. We will disrupt the supply lines of British finance, British construction and British services for illegal settlements.

“And when it comes to the attempt to destroy the two-state solution, this party, this movement, this government, says: We will not let you succeed.”

Mr Miliband’s tribute to the movement was the highlight of the conference thus far, and seemed a moment of cathartic release for a party long-suppressed by Sir Keir’s backing for Israel’s genocide.

It is also surely without precedent for a foreign secretary to publicly concede defeat to a mass movement which has been fighting his own government’s policy.

His promise that “every day as your Labour foreign secretary, I will fight for your values, Labour values, Britain’s values” got him another standing ovation.

The speech, which leant heavily on the experience and values of his Jewish refugee parents, cemented his standing as the government’s most effective and determined minister.

But it raised expectations for PM Andy Burnham to act to end the proscription of Palestine Action, which again led to dozens of arrests of peaceful older people holding placards outside the conference at the weekend.

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said Mr Miliband’s “silence on Palestine Action and on the government’s attack on the right to protest is in danger of appearing hypocritical.

“If he truly believes in his responsibility to leave the world a better place then he would join us in demanding Burnham and the Home Secretary de-proscribe Palestine Action, reverse the legislation that now criminalises large amounts of previously lawful protest and drop the charges” facing anti-war movement leaders.

Mr Miliband also won delegate applause for putting regulation of artificial intelligence at the heart of Labour foreign policy.

He said: “The lesson of history is that we cannot leave it to corporations to put in place the guardrails to serve the public interest. It is neither their purpose nor their motive. Theirs is to maximise profits.

“We cannot and will not allow that to come at the expense of our children or indeed humanity.

“That’s why, as part of our G20 presidency, next year, this country will lead the efforts to manage AI. And no tech titan should stand in our way.”

However, he also told conference that “our future lies in a stronger, deeper partnership with the European Union.”

And despite a pledge “not to accept the status quo, but change it,” the Foreign Secretary stuck within conventional Establishment policy on military spending, Iran and the Ukraine conflict.

“We will stand with the people of Ukraine until they prevail,” he promised.

He did not go quite as far as Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who used his speech to tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “Yesterday, today, tomorrow, we are with you for as long as it takes. Slava Ukraini,” the last being a slogan meaning “Glory to Ukraine,” coined by nationalist collaborators with fascism in World War II.

The Defence Secretary, who is 43, told delegates that “at no point in my lifetime has the threat of war loomed as large as it does today,” while offering no plan to avert it beyond “action and strength.”

And he told “some of our critics on the left: You are not defending our public services by attacking investment in our national defences,” putting himself at odds with the position agreed by the TUC at its Congress this month.

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