When I first met Rosena, she was Labour’s candidate in the 2016 Tooting by-election.
As a by-election candidate myself in Heywood and Middleton in 2014, I know how difficult and uniquely pressured by-elections can be and I wanted to help Rosena win the seat after the amazing Sadiq Khan left to become London mayor.
As soon as I met Rosena, I knew that Tooting would soon have another fantastic Labour MP. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm inspired her whole team. I also knew that Rosena wouldn’t be just a backbench MP but that she would bring her skills and experience to the parliamentary Labour party and she’s certainly done that in her role as shadow sports minister and with her background as a practising A&E doctor in our NHS.
The choice of who to support in the deputy leadership contest has been a difficult one for me. I know all the candidates and they’re all people I am proud to call friends. But it’s Rosena who has most impressed me in this campaign and I think she has the qualities that we need in our new deputy leader.
After the disastrous election result in December 2019, where I lost my seat to the Tories – the first time that they have ever taken Heywood & Middleton – Rosena was one of the first people to contact me, to commiserate but also to talk about what went wrong and how we rebuild from here.
She came up to my constituency to talk with key activists about the campaign and we explored every aspect, from Brexit through to our manifesto and the Labour leadership. We talked about Heywood and Middleton being a 62% Leave voting constituency and how I had tried to represent the views of all my constituents in trying to get a deal that worked for 100%.
Rosena understands the issues that we face here in the North and I know that she is going to be a great campaigning deputy leader who will reach out across the country to win back those lost Labour seats in the North, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales.
I see the role of deputy leader as being a campaigner, an organiser, an advisor and also a critical friend. I think that Rosena is more than capable of doing this job, and doing it extremely well. I am wary of any offer of leader/deputy leader ‘dream tickets’ suggesting a cosy, already formed relationship. The deputy leader has to be able to stand back and assess situations critically and I know that Rosena has the independence and strength of character to do this.
I know how hard Rosena has worked to become a qualified doctor, and she’s not only continued to work shifts at St George’s Hospital, keeping her grounded and in touch with our NHS but she’s also done great humanitarian work reaching out internationally.
I’ll never forget her impassioned speech in parliament when she returned from the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh where she’d been providing medical care to people who have nothing – no citizenship, no home, in many cases no family and no prospect of their situation improving.
Rosena has the strength, knowledge, intelligence and empathy needed to unite our party and also to take our message out to the wider public. And whoever becomes leader, she will be a unique complement to them. I’m proud to call Rosena a friend, and I’m proud to support her to be the next deputy leader of the Labour Party.

Rosena Allin-Khan kicks off Labour deputy leader campaign in Putney with ‘fire in her belly’
​Dr Rosena Allin-Khan launched her deputy Labour leadership campaign in Putney last night.
The campaign, held in the ballroom of the Star & Garter pub, brought together an eclectic crowd, including some young first-time voters.
Tooting MP Dr Allin-Khan, who is running with the slogan ‘Taking Labour Forward’, is a qualified A&E front-line doctor and has provided humanitarian aid to refugees in Syria.
Describing her determination to be the next deputy leader, she said: “Expertise in building trust in communities and shared life experience has put fire in my belly to achieve for others.”
She set out her ‘internationalist’ vision of Britain’s future after Brexit and brought attention to the importance of social care reform, the significance of a grassroots revival and updating technology within the Labour Party.
Labour’s Putney MP Fleur Anderson said that Dr Allin-Khan would be a ‘campaigner-in-chief’ and not a ‘leader-in-waiting’ if elected as deputy leader in a PoliticsHome article last week.
The Musician’s Union has given their endorsement to Dr Allin-Khan and to Sir Keir Starmer for leader.
Voting takes place from February 24 to April 2 and results will be announced on the April 4.

Labour needs to become a party of progressive internationalism once againLast Tuesday, a boat capsized and sank in the Bay of Bengal. There were 138 Rohingya refugees crammed on the boat, fleeing from camps in Bangladesh. At least 15 bodies were found, including four children, with 50 more missing.
I’ve been campaigning for the rights of the Rohingya since the recent crisis unfolded in 2017. I’ve been involved in humanitarian matters long before entering politics and standing to be Labour deputy leader.
Stories such as those of the Rohingya do not often have a light shined upon them here in the UK. They happen far away and it feels as if they’re outside of our control. The UK has a proud history of humanitarian assistance and we must ensure that this continues. We must never allow ourselves to turn a blind eye. Every single human life has equal value, no matter where that person was born, what language they speak or what they look like. Humanity has no borders.
This isn’t just something I believe in principle — I act on it. My work as a humanitarian doctor has taken me to the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, where grieving mothers told me accounts of their babies being ripped from their arms and murdered before their eyes. The guilt of coming home to my own three- and five-year-olds left me unable to sleep at night. Why should their lives be of more value to the world than those of the Rohingya children who are slaughtered without a dignified burial?
I have seen how human life is not valued equally around the world. It lit a fire in my belly to continue fighting such injustice, no matter where it takes place.
At the very heart of my Labour principles is internationalism. I believe this spirit of internationalism must drive everything we do as a party. We must always stand in unwavering opposition to any effort to restrict freedoms, whether here or globally. We’ve seen where this mentality leads — whether it is the tragedy of Windrush, the cruelty of detention centres like Yarl’s Wood, or the inhumanity of a government that votes against protection for vulnerable child refugees. Now is the time for all of us who believe in progressive, internationalist values to fight back. It is our duty to ensure that the Rohingya and other victims are not forgotten by the world.
One of the reasons I decided to stand to become the next deputy leader of Labour is because I believe our party has a unique chance to become a global beacon of internationalism, as it has been before. We have arguably the largest grassroots membership of any political party in Europe. If we are able to unite behind a truly internationalist vision for our party and our country, we could be a force for change on a global scale.
We have a wonderful society, which has welcomed so many people from across the world, but this government’s hostile environment is diminishing hope — hope for a brighter future, hope for a tolerant society.
I first entered politics in order to shed light on humanitarian efforts around the world and give a voice to the voiceless. I still believe we can, and I want to help rebuild the Labour Party so that it becomes a powerful force for good. As a party we need to rebuild trust with our communities, with the British people and the international community. Let’s do this together.
Rosena Allin-Khan is Labour MP for Tooting and candidate for the deputy leadership

The Musicians’ Union has nominated Keir Starmer to be the next leader of the Labour Party, and Rosena Allin-Khan to be the next deputy.
The party-affiliated organisation has become the fourth trade union to back Starmer, and the first to back Allin-Khan.
In 2015, the union nominated Andy Burnham for leader and Caroline Flint for deputy, and in 2016 it backed leadership challenger Owen Smith.
Commenting on their nomination on Twitter, the Musicians’ Union said Starmer had been “a strong supporter of musicians”.
“He understands the challenges musicians working in the EU are facing and what we need to do to meet them”.
The organisation also revealed in a tweet that Allin-Khan was a “former Musicians’ Union member” and said they were “proud to see her rise so far” and “to support her as she continues fighting for young people to have a free musical education.”
Starmer has already secured his place on the final ballot through both the support of affiliates, including large trade union UNISON, and the backing of local Labour parties.
To reach the ballot paper, each candidate must be nominated by 5% of local parties or three affiliates, two of which must be trade unions, amounting to more than 5% of the total affiliate membership.
Starmer has been nominated by a total of 159 constituency parties so far, as well as UNISON, Usdaw, SERA, Community, Labour Movement for Europe, Labour Business and the Socialist Health Association.
Allin-Khan has yet to secure a place on the final ballot, having so far only secured the support of 17 CLPs and the Labour Campaign for International Development.

Fleur Anderson MP: As Deputy Leader, Rosena Allin-Khan would be a campaigner-in-chief, not a leader-in-waitingRosena Allin-Khan is a real campaigner – she knows how to roll up her sleeves and get stuck in, writes Putney's new MP, Fleur Anderson.
The night of the General Election result was a deeply distressing moment for all of us who love the Labour Party and who love our country. It was an horrific experience to watch the door close on a whole generation as the Tories won a huge majority to continue their destructive and damaging agenda.
But I was also hugely proud and honoured to produce the only Labour gain of the night, as I became the new MP for Putney. It was, I hope, a rare bright light in an otherwise long, dark night for all those Labour activists, members and volunteers who worked tirelessly during the election. Rosena’s help and support was vital to that win. She is my friend and colleague, as we were councillors together and she is the MP for the neighbouring constituency of Tooting.
It’s sometimes forgotten how difficult it can be for prospective parliamentary candidates, especially ones who’ve never stood to be an MP before. Of course, it’s a huge honour to be given the chance to represent your local community, and to make their voices heard in the corridors of power – but you also have to put your life on hold for months, spending hardly any time with your friends and family, working and campaigning relentlessly, whatever the weather, rain or shine. And at the end of it all, there’s absolutely no guarantee you’ll get the job, especially in a marginal seat like Putney. It’s incredibly rewarding, but it’s hard work too. Rosena was there for me every step of the way, helping me, guiding me, giving me advice and encouragement and very practical support too. I cannot thank her enough.
She is a real campaigner – she knows how to roll up her sleeves and get stuck in, and every single voter who meets her comes away with a positive impression and a smile on their face. I should know - we stood to be Councillors together in the same ward in 2014 - fighting a seat that had been Tory for 24 years - and we won, through sheer hard work and positive conversations. Rosena is a relentless optimist – she always finds the positives in every situation and she never gives up, no matter what. Her life-story is a true demonstration of our Labour values – she comes from an impoverished background, failed her A-levels first time around but persevered, and because of reforms introduced by a Labour government, she was able to study at Cambridge and become a doctor before becoming an MP - it shows the difference a Labour Government can make to the lives of people across our country.
Rosena is now running to become the next Deputy Leader of Labour. There’s no doubt she’s the underdog in the race, but that’s never stopped her before, and I know it won’t stop her now. She would be a phenomenal Deputy Leader of our Party, and that’s why she’s got my total support. She’s got the most interesting and substantive ideas of any of the candidates, and she’s already published a fantastic Grassroots Revival manifesto of how the Labour Party can improve our campaigning practices to get back to winning ways ahead of the local elections in May. As Deputy Leader, she would be a campaigner-in-chief, not a leader-in-waiting. In Putney, I saw the real difference she made with her energy, her optimism and her campaigning skill. Thanks to Rosena’s help, we turned blue seats into red ones, and if she’s elected as the next Deputy Leader, we can start doing that across the whole country - at both a local and a national level. Let’s take Labour forward.
Fleur Anderson is Labour MP for Putney.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: As a doctor and as a daughter I know social care is broken.
The deputy leadership candidate has spoken about the horror of finding her dad - who has dementia- injured and not knowing what happened. She wants to make sure no other family has to suffer that way.
Nothing prepares you for finding your loved one bruised and blooded. Nothing prepares you for never finding answers. This is the reality that every day, so many people are living through, across the UK, because of the nature of the social care system. Nothing prepared me for being one of the statistics.
My father has fronto-temporal dementia – he cannot communicate his thoughts but he is fully aware of what is happening. My brother and I found him bloodied and bruised on more than one occasion, we have sought answers but we know that we will never find them. He is safe now, but his health has deteriorated massively and has affected his life expectancy.
This is not just my reality. This is the reality for so many others across the country.
I am lucky. I was able to call a debate last year and get The Mirror to cover my family’s journey. Most people don’t have that luxury. Instead, they’re left fighting the social care system.
I’ve been on both sides. As an aggrieved family member and a local politician with a responsibility for social care, I’ve seen the strife that goes into placements on both sides. The system is failing our most vulnerable residents.
As it stands, the social care system is not fit for purpose. The Tories promised in their manifesto that they would tackle social care. It’s been three years – and yet still no Green Paper, despite countless promises.
Last week, in Parliament, I asked the Health Secretary how many more families will suffer before the Government looks to reform the social care system. There was no answer.
As an A&E doctor, who regularly sees vulnerable older people stranded in hospital because they don’t have access to adequate social care, and as a daughter, who’s had to go through this process, I have the following recommendations:
- A truly independent complaints process – formal complaints should not have to go through the care provider or local authority who the complaint is against.
- A reformed process for awarding care contracts – to ensure that failing companies cannot simply change their name and continue providing inadequate care.
- An Independent Advocate for Older People – to protect and promote the rights of older people.
- Mandatory CCTV with an opt-out – CCTV in communal areas within care homes should be mandatory to provide evidence of any unacceptable behaviour in a care setting.
- A fully funded social care system, integrated into our NHS, with a ban on outsourcing to private companies.
Increased funding alone won’t solve the problems being faced by our most vulnerable – only enacting the above changes will. At some point in our lives, we all have an experience with the social care system – as a daughter, I know how difficult it is when this system fails you.
As Labour Deputy Leader, I would continue putting pressure on this Tory Government and their poor record on social care. As a society, we must protect our most vulnerable – sadly, nothing prepares you for confronting the worst. As your Deputy Leader, I would work with the Leader of the Labour Party to put the NHS and social care front and centre of our policy going forward. We need to protect our most vulnerable. We need a Labour Government.

I am hugely proud and honoured to be nominated for Deputy Leader by the Labour Campaign for International Development.
As someone who has worked as an humanitarian doctor in conflict zones across the world, their progressive approach to international development and promotion of global justice is an inspiration.
My priority will always be to put human rights and international solidarity at the core of everything I do. Human life should have equal value, no matter where someone comes from. These principles shouldn't just apply to our international development policies, they should be applied to everything we do as the Labour Party.
I want to thank the Labour Campaign for International Development for their support and their endorsement. Let's take Labour forward, together.


Thank you 
Doctor Rosena ​

Brexit Might Be Done But The Fight Against Boris Johnson's Destruction Must ContinueAlthough the Labour party is in a difficult place right now, we must make sure it is at the forefront of the fightback.
When the UK leaves the EU this Friday, 31 January 2020, after 47 years of membership, it will be a sombre day for many of us. For others, it will be a day of celebration. For most people, I suspect they will simply hope we can now move on from talking about Brexit at the expense of everything else.  
As someone who campaigned with all my heart to stay in the EU, and as the first person on Labour’s front bench to publicly call for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal, I am desperately sad to see us leaving our friends and allies in Europe. But we are leaving. The disastrous result of the General Election has settled that. This is no longer an argument about Leave or Remain, it’s about what kind of future we want for our country and for our children.
That’s where the new fight begins. Boris Johnson wants to pretend he’s now “Got Brexit Done”, and we no longer need to worry about the details. He wants us to simply trust him to sort it all out. Well, I don’t trust him. Neither should you. He talks about “Global Britain” whilst turning his back on vulnerable child refugees. He talks about “Taking Back Control” while reducing parliament’s ability to scrutinise his decisions. He talks about attracting “Global Talent” to the UK while creating huge distress and uncertainty for EU citizens, many of whom have been here for years and who have made their lives in this country.
The fight for our internationalist values starts now. It will be long, and it will be difficult, because Boris Johnson has a large majority – but that’s why it’s so important. When it feels like hope is lost, that’s when those of us who believe in progressive values and internationalism need to stand up and fight. If we don’t, no-one else is going to do it for us.
We need to stand up and fight for our hard-won workers’ rights. We need to stand up and fight for our environmental protections. Most importantly, we need to stand up and fight for the rights of EU citizens living in this country. They are our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues, our family. I work side-by-side with many of them in the NHS, when I work shifts as a doctor in my local A&E department. Under the draconian new immigration laws being bandied around by this government, my own Polish mother might not have been able to move to this country and make a life for herself.
Although the Labour party is in a difficult place right now, we must make sure it is at the forefront of the fightback. That’s one of the main reasons I am running to become the next Deputy Leader. We have huge organisational strength through our membership, through our links with the trade unions and through our MPs and councillors embedded in their local communities. Now is the time to deploy those strengths to maximum effect, to hold the Government to account and ensure that we fight back against every attempt to undercut our rights and freedoms at work, every attempt to weaken our environmental safeguards, every attempt to inject privatisation into our National Health Service.
The slogan “Get Brexit Done” might have helped win the election for Boris Johnson, but for those of us who stand against his destructive vision for the future of our country, this fight isn’t done. It’s just getting started.

My responses to the questions provided by the Labour Campaign for Free Movement
1. Defend and extend free movement: opposing any reduction in the freedoms of UK and EU citizens to live, work, and access social security in each others’ countries, and any immigration system based on incomes, migrants’ utility to business, and number caps or targets.I am the very embodiment of the benefits free movement has brought – my mother is Polish and was able to come to this country and make a life for herself here. Under the draconian new immigration policies being discussed by this Tory government, she might never have been able to do that.  
Protecting and extending free movement is at the very heart of my internationalist Labour principles. I believe our country is stronger and better because of free movement. When I work shifts as an A&E doctor in my local hospital, I work with NHS staff from across Europe and it breaks my heart to see many of them feeling unwanted or undervalued because of Brexit.
As Deputy Leader, I pledge to do everything in my power to promote the core Labour values of internationalism and solidarity across borders, because I believe human life has the same value no matter where someone comes from. That means defending and extending free movement, and it means fighting to protect the human rights of migrants from this hostile Tory government.

2. Close every detention centreHolding migrants in detention centres, often in substandard conditions, is incredibly cruel and degrading. These are often vulnerable people, fleeing from a variety of horrific circumstances such as war, trafficking and poverty. They have the right to be treated with dignity, as human beings, as we would want ourselves or our family to be treated in such horrendous circumstances. When working abroad as a humanitarian doctor, I’ve seen first-hand some of the terrible conditions people are forced to endure in detention centres and it horrified me. 
We must fight back against the hostile environment the Tories have created for migrants – the Labour Party has always stood for international solidarity and openness to the world – we need a Labour government to bring those principles back into the core of our approach to immigration.
I would want to listen to expert opinion on how to do this in a responsible way, but I certainly would want to close as many detention centres as possible and make sure we have an overall approach to immigration that means a concept as cruel as detention centres are not required in the first place.


3. Unconditional rights to family reunionYes, I fully support this. The unconditional right to family reunion is a fundamental element of treating migrants as human beings with dignity and equal value, rather than the Tory approach of seeing migrants as a problem to be managed. When I’ve worked as a humanitarian doctor in conflict zones across the world, it was always horrendous to see so many families ripped apart or prevented from seeing each other again. When I visited Palestine on a humanitarian mission, I saw sick children alone in hospital because the permit system meant their parents weren’t allowed to visit them. I immediately began working on ways to resolve this.
It’s not enough to just talk about this – we need to be working every day to deliver a Labour government so we can fix these kinds of injustices. That’s what I’d do as Deputy Leader.


4. End “no recourse to public funds” policiesI support ending such policies, yes. This is another case of a Tory government treating migrants not as human beings with human dignity and equal value, but instead as a problem to be managed through cruelty.
I want to deliver a Labour government with internationalism at its core, which would allow us to change our entire approach to migration, and begin seeing human life as equally valuable and equally dignified no matter where that person was born or where they’ve come from.​

5. Oppose all Hostile Environment measures, use of landlords and public service providers as border guards, and restrictions on migrants’ NHS accessThe Tory Hostile Environment approach to immigration is a stain on the soul of their party, and they should be ashamed of it. Tragedies such as the Windrush scandal are a horrendous demonstration of where this approach leads, and I worry a similar scandal could occur with EU citizens who’ve made their lives in this country. I want a Labour government so we can end the Hostile Environment immediately and start treating migrants with the human dignity and respect they deserve.

6. Equal voting rights for all UK residents
I am certainly interested in all ideas for how to revitalise our democracy and increase the level of engagement with our political process. Indeed, prior to the General Election in 2019, I publicly called for EU citizens to get the right to vote. Our Labour values of openness and internationalism must be at the core of everything we do.  


7. Please share your thoughts on these wider issues that our supporters also feel strongly about:Even after Brexit, the UK government looks set to participate in Frontex (the European border agency) and its “Fortress Europe” policies. Will you challenge these policies?
I certainly think the EU has often failed dismally to strike the right balance between border security and solidarity with people fleeing from war, poverty and the effects of global climate change. I am a proud pro-European, but that doesn’t mean my view of the EU is uncritical and I’ve never been afraid to say so. My values of international solidarity and openness don’t stop at the borders of Europe – they extend across the whole world. Human life always has equal value, no matter where that person comes from.


Will you support an amnesty for undocumented migrants resident in the UK?
We should always treat people with compassion and dignity, and we must place those values at the heart of everything we do when it comes to immigration. People in this country without documentation are often asylum seekers fleeing from horrific conditions and I want to see them treated with the human dignity they deserve. I would want to listen in more detail to expert opinion and feedback on the specific question of whether an amnesty is the right approach, but the principles of human dignity and compassion must always guide everything we do.  
 
Anything else you’d like Labour members, supporters and affiliates to know about what your leadership/deputy leadership would mean for migrants and migration policy?
I am the living, breathing proof that free movement is a wonderful benefit to our country. My Polish mother was able to come to this country and make a life for herself here. Working on the frontlines of the NHS as an A&E doctor, I work alongside colleagues from across Europe and the rest of the world, and they are a credit to our country. It makes me proud to be British. But years of Tory government has created a literal Hostile Environment for migrants in this country. The drawbridge is being pulled up, and the rights of a whole generation of people to travel freely and live, love and work across Europe is being taken away. That is a tragedy, but it also means those of us who are proud of our outward-looking, progressive, internationalist values must fight even harder to protect and extend them. The fight starts now, and as your Deputy Leader (or even if I’m not!), I promise I will always be there fighting alongside you for those values with everything I’ve got. 

Nothing prepares you for seeing a colleague in tears over antisemitism.
Labour deputy leadership hopeful, Rosena Allin-Khan, speaks about her heritage informing her fight against Jew-hate, and her commitment to mending ties with the community.
“There is nothing that prepares you for seeing a colleague in tears,” says Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, one of five hopefuls standing for Labour’s deputy-leadership.
Committed to winning back the trust of the community – and standing up for MPs such as Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth who are no longer in Westminster – Allin-Khan, currently the MP for Tooting, seems sincere in her battle against hate.
She grew up as the daughter of immigrants – her father hailing from Pakistan, her mother from Poland, herself the descendent of resistance fighters killed by the Nazis.
But she’s aware that hate and prejudice won’t be solved over a chat with tea and biscuits.
Before her career in politics, she was a humanitarian doctor, working on the ground with Palestinians, while her mother’s family from Poland were killed by the Nazis.
It’s these experiences which allow her to reconcile speaking out against Israeli policies, while committing herself to the fight against antisemitism, drawing praise from the community in carefully balancing these issues.
The first of her pledges is to meet with the Jewish Labour Movement, should she get elected. It would be “essential to the restructuring” of relations, and “how we rebuild trust.”
She is also keen on an education program, saying “people use antisemitic tropes and they don’t even realise what they’re doing and they repeatedly do so.”
While indicating she would speak with “any group that was looking to acknowledge there was a problem, and work towards coming up with a solution to fix it” she adds that she is the “only deputy leader candidate who hasn’t nominated a leader”.
She’s willing to “work with whomever the leader is” on rebuilding trust.
Calling the demise in relations between the community and the party “sad” and “terrible”, she opens up about “people I know that I am very close to, who have been really brave and speaking out antisemitism in the party.”
“They have received torrents of abuse and nothing’s been done about it”.
“Any leader seeing something like this unfolding needs to be all over it”, she says.
But was Corbyn’s team responsible? She says they were not the “cause of the antisemitic problem in Labour, I think they didn’t deal with the problem, well enough”.
Yet, she’s under no illusions as to the extent of the problem, saying it must be tackled “from a grassroots membership level first and take it all the way to MPs themselves”.
“The complaints process wasn’t dealt with properly”, Allin-Khan says, adding: “As people began to show antisemitic abuse .. the more they saw it wasn’t being dealt with the more they felt able to do so.”
On mending ties, she wants an “independent” process for tackling complaints with “outstanding cases to be dealt with within a particular time”, and “automatic expulsion” for antisemitism, though she wouldn’t be drawn on whether she would intervene, like Tom Watson, who she is trying to succeed.
Her drive to fight antisemitism is in part inspired by her heritage.
“My mum’s Polish and I lost lots of family during the war. They were not Jewish, but they fought alongside Jewish friends and my great uncle died during that time, my grandma was pregnant in the Warsaw ghetto with my uncle.”
“That whole experience is a very real part of my history, and it is a shared history that I understand deeply and I’m very saddened about with the Jewish community.
She was embroiled in a dispute with the Israeli Deputy Ambassador in 2016, following a radio discussion about Palestinians’ access to medical aid.
After revealing the two had met in person to discuss the issue, she was accused of being “bought by Zionists”, facing significant online abuse.
Her response drew praise, with Dave Rich from the Community Security Trust saying it “illustrated the difference between pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist”.
She says: “I am a doctor, and have been a humanitarian doctor for my whole professional life.”
“It is possible, and fair, to identify areas where there could be improvement to somebody’s life and health and not to conflate that with a whole antisemitic issue.
“ I will always be proud to stand up for people’s basic human rights, and I’m also very aware of my history and my shared history with the Jewish community.
I feel it’s perfectly possible to manage the two.”