Editorial: The main Westminster political parties have backed Israel at this critical time

The political reaction in mainstream British politics to the mass murder of Jews in Israel by Hamas has been one of near total revulsion.​

Both the main parties at Westminster, the Conservatives and Labour, have expressed complete solidarity with Israel and its right to defend itself, and unequivocal rejection of Hamas.

So much has changed in Labour in a short space of time. Only a few years ago it was led by Jeremy Corbyn, a man who even after the October 7 slaughter has been unable to condemn Hamas.

With the UK offering help to Israel at this critical time, it is remarkable to think that a man with such views would have been Downing Street if he had won the 2017 general election, which he almost did, getting one of the best Labour results since World War Two and depriving the then Tory leader Theresa May of an overall majority.

Labour has had something akin to a nervous breakdown in recent years. It embraced Mr Corbyn, and various leading figures in the party including Keir Starmer campaigned for him to become prime minister. Then the party expelled him. But then the Tories are not in much position to lecture Labour, having had their own internal convulsions.

The atrocity of the Hamas raid has flagged up all sorts of madness. Some people with liberal views for example, who are utterly determined to change the law and culture in the UK to make harassment of women of any variety harder are then calling for proof amid claims that Hamas raped Jewish women.

Also, the public demonstrations in favour of Palestinian activist views at this worst moment for Jews since the Holocaust have been larger than demonstrations for Israel. This does, as leading politicians have said, raise profound questions about multi-culturalism.

Yet we have a PM Rishi Sunak, a Hindu who is total in backing Israel, who illustrates the upsides.