Scrutinising politicians is not "bullying"

I've been accused of "misogyny" and "bullying" for challenging a politician about Israel's genocide. Cynical doesn't cover it

Scrutinising politicians is not “bullying”. And challenging them over their records on Israel’s genocide is not “misogyny.”

It is absurd that I have to write any of this, but that’s the stage we’ve got to with our ever declining democracy.

Every year we film a video of Labour conference, which often involves running after grandees who don’t like being scrutinised. This year, my pass was revoked (after we’d finished filming, mind), with the Labour party claiming that there had been “complaints” about my “conduct”, which had implications for their “safeguarding obligations to all attendees.”

You can watch the whole thing here.

Since then, one of the interviewees - Emily Thornberry, my local MP and former shadow cabinet minister - was asked about my pass by the Islington Tribune. What she said is frankly absolutely astonishing in his cynicism - and downright sinister.

You can watch it here.

Thornberry accuses me of “harassing” and“bullying” her and “getting off on doing that”.

It was put to her that doorstepping is something journalists do - and this isn’t even “doorstepping”, given I wasn’t confronting her on her doorstep, but rather at a party conference where she had multiple public speaking engagements. But she suggested it was “intimidating”, adding “I didn’t see any men being chased by Owen Jones” and that “there is an element of misogyny in all of this sometimes.”

You can watch my interaction with Thornberry at 18:24 in the video. I challenged her about her utterly disgraceful comments at the beginning of the genocide, in which she was asked by Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Newsnight whether “cutting off food, water and electricity is within international law.”

This came after Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had “ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip”, adding: “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

Keir Starmer had just been interviewed on LBC and declared that Israel had the right to cut off the essentials of life, which he later claimed he had never believed, despite having said it. It was in that context that Thornberry went on television, clearly defending her boss.

In doing so, she helped justify genocide. This was an obviously genocidal act by Israel. Notably, the International Criminal Court’s later arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant centred on deliberate starvation. The reason this mattered is that the British government was coming under no pressure to challenge Israel’s war crimes from the main opposition.

When I tried to challenge Thornberry, she tried the classic politician’s tactic of filibustering rather than answering the question. She then claimed she had only been supporting a temporary siege, admitting her position was a “mistake” - the first regret I’ve heard her expressed about what she said - and claiming that she had been told in confidence that Israel would only mount a limited Entebbe-style raid to rescue the hostages.

This was despite Israeli leaders and officials making clear their genocidal intent from day one, as I wrote at the time. She refused to say who told her this - and the claim that someone of influence was lying to British shadow ministers about Israel’s intentions is clearly newsworthy. She refused to divulge who, but a functioning media would try and investigate what she was talking about.

The idea there was any “bullying” or “harassment” here is absolutely unhinged. And her claim that I didn’t scrutinise male politicians, and that therefore I am a misogynist, is a demonstrable lie.

In the video, I not only scrutinised male politicians, I subjected them to far more intensive questioning. One example was Luke Akehurst, a professional pro-Israel lobbyist before being parachuted into North Durham.

You can watch one clip here.

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Another example is Lord John Mann, a former Labour MP, who angrily grabbed my microphone and told me to “f*ck off” when I attempted to get it back. There’ll be clips of this tomorrow.

Cynically appropriating identity politics to protect yourself - an elected politician - from scrutiny is just deeply sinister behaviour. Claiming it is “bullying” and “harassment” is literally Trumpian. Trump routinely claims that scrutiny qualifies as bullying, which has now escalated to scrutiny qualifying as incitement to violence.

This strategy has repeatedly been used by Labour politicians. We saw it used to shut down an an attempt by the Scottish National Party to challenge Israeli war crimes in February 2024.

Thornberry also bizarrely claims she saw me on my own and I don’t behave like this without a camera being there. Firstly, I haven’t seen her at all since the genocide began, and she made her disgraceful comments. Secondly - what is the claim here exactly? That my normal conversational manner is not the same as when I’m trying to interview someone on camera? What is the point here?

Luke Akehurst - a member of Labour’s national executive committee before becoming an MP, and a key fixer of the Labour Right - has since justified my pass being removed.

Well, I think we can work out there where one of the complaints came from. (Note Thornberry also said it was “extraordinary” that I’d been let in the conference at the start of the interview).

What he says here is false. I’m not a member of any political party. I came to Labour conference to scrutinise the politicians running the country - including over the government’s complicity in genocide. Rather than “deranged accusations”, I put forward questions he could not answer.

He justifies not giving me a pass given my “anti-Labour political agenda.” Labour not only has no problem in giving passes to GB News - who have their own on site studio at conference - and right-wing rags like The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Telegraph. Labour politicians queue up to be interviewed by these rags.

The truth is the authoritarian pound shop Trumps running the Labour party have no problem with scrutiny from the right. They regard the left, however, as politically illegitimate.

The fact Akehurst could not answer my questions, and expressed total ignorance of the subject, is very revealing. So is Thornberry treating questions about her shameful intervention at the beginning of Israel’s genocide.

They are simply not used to being scrutinised about the genocide and the role of the British government - because our compliant media rarely asks any questions about the subject at all. When the questions are asked, they are often ill-informed and don’t seek to put politicians under any pressure.

There was nothing wrong with my conduct at all. I was banned because Labour politicians don’t want to be scrutinised about one of the worst crimes of our age.

Very few mainstream journalists have said anything to say about this - and frankly many of them will sympathise with Labour’s decision, regarding me and my fellow journalist Rivkah Brown - also revoked - as troublesome, aggravating interlopers.

But politicians banning journalists for asking questions they do not like is just one symptom of creeping authoritarianism - legitimised by many of these journalists, who don’t currently ask the sort of questions that trouble our rulers.

The National Union of Journalists’ general secretary, Laura Davison, has released a statement, however, which I’m very thankful for. And I’ll continue to do my job, whatever obstacles are put in my way!