Police Probe Vandalising of Labour MP’s Office Over Gaza Ceasefire Vote

The vandalised constituency office of Labour MP Jo Stevens in Albany Road, Cardiff, on Nov. 17, 2023. Ben Birchall/PA

The police have launched an investigation after a Labour shadow minister’s Cardiff office was vandalised as she abstained in a vote to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Shadow Wales Secretary Jo Stevens’s office in Cardiff was sprayed on Thursday night with red paint and posters were put up showing a red palm-print on her face and the words “blood on your hands.”

In a statement to The Epoch Times, a police spokesperson said, “South Wales Police is investigating criminal damage to a property on Albany Road. A number of items have been seized for examination and enquiries are on-going.”

It comes after ten Labour frontbenchers quit their roles to vote for the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) ceasefire amendment when Labour ordered party members to abstain and back “humanitarian pauses” instead.

The SNP ceasefire vote was defeated by 294 votes to 125. With a Conservative majority in Parliament, it had little chance of passing even if Labour did support it.

Ms. Stevens said this is not the first time her office was vandalised by pro-Palestinian protesters.

“There’s been four protests in the last two weeks I think. [During] the first one the office was vandalised, not as severely. And then there were two in between and then there was the one last night,” she told LBC on Friday.

The MP for Cardiff Central said she has had to close her constituent office during each of the protest.

She also said she “unequivocally support[s] the right of peaceful protest” but “this is just people with a very entrenched view who believes that they are completely right and that nobody else is allowed to even consider nevermind have a different point of view.”

Stevens: That’s Not A Ceasefire

Speaking of the protesters’ call for a ceasefire in Gaza, she said, “We all want the violence to stop but the people that are protesting outside my office and the people who’ve committed the offences last night, as far as I can tell the ceasefire that they want is for Israel to put down its weapons and that’s it. Well, that’s not a ceasefire.

“And there’s a reason why our international partners and here in the UK, we are seeking with the EU and the [United States] and with Arab nations to find a solution that ... will be a stepping stone to a complete cessation of violence and hopefully to a start of talks so that there can be a political solution to this horrific situation.”

In a statement published on Thursday, Ms. Stevens said a ceasefire can only be negotiated, not imposed.

“As much as we would wish it, neither the Hamas leadership nor [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu and his government are prepared to contemplate it at the moment. Both have publicly and repeatedly said they will continue their efforts because Hamas’s aim is to remove the state of Israel from the map and Netanyahu and his government’s aim is to destroy Hamas and its infrastructure,” she said.

The MPs said she has listened to constituents including “Palestinian families whose relatives have been killed in Gaza and Israeli families whose relatives have been killed and also those who have family-members still being held hostage after being captured by Hamas” and will continue to listen to them all, adding, “The only way to end the conflict is a political solution.”

Jess Phillips, who resigned as shadow home office minister to back the SNP ceasefire vote on Thursday, condemn the Green Party which published a list of MPs they claimed had “failed to vote for an end to the killing in Gaza.”

The Labour MP for Birmingham, Yardley said the party’s behaviour is “shameful.”

More than a quarter of Labour MPs crossed the party line on Thursday to back a call for ceasefire despite leader Sir Keir Starmer’s attempt to convince them that a ceasefire now would only benefit the Hamas terrorist group and lead to more violence.

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7 after Hamas terrorists, who control Gaza, attacked Israel, killing more than 1,400 and took over 200 hostages. Some bodies, including those of children, have been found to have been burnt, raped, and decapitated.

Israel then ordered a total siege on Gaza and launched missile and ground attacks, with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reporting over 11,320 deaths, including 4,650 children. According to the U.N., almost half of Gaza’s population is under 18.

U.N. experts have said Israel’s retaliation, including the cutting off of utility and supplies, amounts to “collective punishment” that’s forbidden under international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the blame for civilian deaths in Gaza “should be placed squarely on Hamas,” telling CNN that the group had prevented civilians from evacuation “sometimes at gunpoint,” fired on the safe corridor, and put rockets in schools and hospitals.