National Labour Spat has Collateral Effect in Newham

A ‘Black Church’ opened its doors to help with Covid 19 vaccinations. Jesus Church for All Nations was also engaged in a number of other initiatives to help the local Brent community.

So far, so good. Or so Sir Keir Starmer thought and he posted a video of his visit to see the vaccination centre. Doubtless he thought it would contribute in a small way to building bridges with a marginalised community, and possibly even raise his own popularity.

Whoops.

It seems that the senior pastor of the church “advocated against gay equality laws”, we think that that means was opposed to Gay marriage. He was also accused of promoting conversion therapy, but we haven’t been able to confirm that this is true (though it is oft repeated), and he denies it.

If a senior member of staff at the church opposed Gay marriage it seems reasonable to suppose that the view is shared by others in the congregation. So here we have an intersectional conundrum; oppressed Black people have the wrong views on sexual politics; what is more important, their status as oppressed people or their ‘wrong beliefs’? At the moment it seems that wrong attitudes on sex and gender issues trumps their status as an oppressed minority.

But we are not sure if that hierarchy of oppression extends to other religions or to the socially very conservative people that run the Mayor’s favoured, Newham Muslim Forum. Perhaps the intersectional inquisition can provide us with a list of what things we are not allowed to say or to think this week. And perhaps they can offer some advice as to how we might atone should we ever have thought differently in the past.

A word of warning then to our two MPs and to the Mayor and to councillors. The next time you are invited to visit a mosque or church or temple, to see a food bank in operation, to visit a night shelter or to see their work with children, you might want to check whether anyone in the church has views or beliefs, or indeed has ever had views or beliefs which might make somebody else, somewhere on the intersectional matrix offended. Not real offence you understand, just offended enough to be able to claim self-righteous indignation and in so doing assume a position of moral superiority. 

It is not suggested that Starmer in any way endorsed or supported these particularly conservative religious views. He visited the vaccination centre and praised the work they have done around Covid 19. He didn’t ask about, nor do we suspect he felt he had any need to ask about their views on Gay marriage. Nonetheless, as soon as it was known that he had been to Brent he was forced to “apologise for the hurt my visit caused and (I) have taken down the video. It was a mistake and I accept that”.

Starmer visits people he disagrees with. See that they do some good things in their community. SHAME ON YOU STARMER!

But it emerges that the fallout comes closer to home.

Oh dear.

The Greens have been quick to take umbrage and are reported in The Recorder. The Green Party candidate in the East Ham ward by-election, said he felt "extremely disappointed" that Mr Timms backed the church; "We all make mistakes, and being part of public life requires recognising those mistakes and apologising for them. This is what Stephen Timms must now do." In a press release the Greens demanded that Starmer now expels Timms from the Labour Party. And we thought that Labour was bad!

A former Lib-Dem candidate said that he was both “appalled” and “dismayed”. He called upon “Stephen Timms to retract his comment and apologise to those who have been hurt by it."

Timms says “thank you” to churches, gurdwaras, temples and mosques for their work  helping the community in a time of need. He mentions one by name. Shame on him. He should know that it is not what they do but what they think that matters. And if they think differently, they should be publicly condemned. Deviation is the new heresy so let’s gather together to burn the heretics. 

Or perhaps one day, some of our politicians will get grown up enough to say that “I met with people whom I disagreed with on certain points and agreed with on others. I am grateful for the work they have done and are doing in their community”.