Closing summary
Zack Polanski said he would discourage pro-Palestine protesters from using the chant “globalise the intifada” but stressed that he is “not interested” in policing language.
He told the BBC that it is not a phrase he would personally use – but warned against specifically outlawing the chant or banning a protest planned in London later this month.
Polanski reiterated his apology for retweeting a post suggesting the police used excessive force when they arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack last week.
The Green party leader described the attack and the footage of the arrest - which shows two officers appearing to kick the suspect on or near his head – as “traumatic” this morning in an interview with Sky News.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said Polanski’s retweeting of the post was “disgusting” and “absolutely abhorrent” as she claimed he was not “fit to lead a political party”.
Amid growing speculation about potential Labour leadership challenges in the wake of the 7 May election results, Alexander insisted that “the best person to lead our country” was still Keir Starmer.
Thanks for joining us. We are closing this blog now. You can find all our latest coverage of UK politics here.
Updated
Lucy Powell says Labour has ‘no magic bullet’ as MPs brace for heavy losses in local elections
Labour’s deputy leader has warned there will be “no magic bullet” to solve Labour’s problems – or major challenges facing the country – as its MPs grapple with how to navigate the fallout out from the local elections.
Lucy Powell told the Guardian she understood there was “huge anger and despondency” from Labour MPs in the aftermath of the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal, but said the prime minister would not make a similar mistake again.
Powell, who called for Keir Starmer to be more explicitly progressive during her deputy leadership campaign, said she would not engage in leadership speculation with the party facing a potential loss of more than 75% of the council seats it is defending, as well as losing power in Wales and failing to beat the SNP in Scotland.
But she warned restive MPs there would be “no one change” that would lead to a reverse in fortunes. “There’s no magic bullet here for us. We are in a difficult world,” she said in an interview on the campaign trail in Leeds, where the party is facing off against both Reform and the Greens in different parts of the city.
“I strongly believe that we’ve got the right agenda to start turning that around. To give people hope, an opportunity and see the change in their communities.”
Asked if Keir Starmer was the right leader to deliver it, Powell said: “I’m not going to get into that. I think there’s no one change that [will affect] all of these situations. We’ve still got to tackle these big issues, and we’ve got to do it in the right way with the right values. Having some side order conversation about personnel and people, I think misses the point.” You can read the full story here:
