Pro-Palestine protest disrupts Luton Borough Council meeting

Protesters shouting and chanting in support of Palestine disrupted Luton Borough Council’s budget full council meeting, last night (Monday, February 19).

Palestinian flags were draped over the balcony of the Town Hall council chamber, as around a dozen people expressed their feelings about the current situation in the Middle East.

Chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “shame” could be heard, while one protester said: “We need our representatives to be our voice” and another: “This Labour-led council has yet to call out its leader.”

A scripted explanation for interrupting the meeting was read out and there was criticism of the councillors who opted to walk out of the chamber during the protest, with cries of “cowards”.

Some suggested they were being prevented from holding a proper conversation with their local authority representatives, and that they were only ever being offered a time and a place for a chat.

On X, formerly Twitter, Luton Community Action posted afterwards: “Tonight, we attended a council meeting to support the delivery of an important message to the Luton Labour Group (of councillors).

“And we wanted to ensure our community voice is heard about the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

“Our councillors and mayor responded by calling in security and the police to have the public removed.”

The disruption happened about ten minutes into the meeting with a number of voices from the public gallery preventing the local authority’s deputy leader Javed Hussain from being heard.

He was outlining a presentation about ‘navigating the challenges and laying foundations for a thriving town’ at the start of proceedings. The council had heard already from executive leader councillor Hazel Simmons on the same subject.

Once the protest began, Luton mayor councillor Yaqub Hanif asked for the disruption to stop before advising everyone to vacate the council chamber until the protesters could be removed.

One of the protesters was heard saying he had no plans to leave and asked whether he might be dragged out. The meeting was delayed for about a quarter of an hour.

There was an earlier post on Facebook under Luton Community Action, explaining: “The International Courts have said that it’s plausible Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“Councillors will be attending a full council meeting at the Town Hall on Monday. Join us to call on them to raise the Palestinian flag in solidarity! Make your voices heard!”

On resuming his speech, Labour Beech Hill councillor Hussain apologised to everyone for the disruption in the chamber, saying: “As one of the highlights of last year, we all unanimously voted for a ceasefire.

“We’ve done everything we could as a local authority. Perhaps that isn’t enough for some people, but we did and I would like to thank all those who were involved in putting that through.”

Councillor Simmons concluded the presentation, adding: “There are always those who want to look down their noses at Luton.

“But we know the spirit of the people is strong. We’ve seen it here, this evening. And we know the spirit is being seen in an increasingly positive light.”

Luton Community Action’s statement on X read: "We've attempted to engage our councillors and MPs, during the past weeks and months, to highlight community concerns about the inaction of the Labour Party on Palestine.

"We're dismayed in particular that our elected representatives have failed to condemn statements by senior members of the Labour Party.

"This includes (leader Sir) Keir Starmer who said Israel had the right to withhold water from civilians in Gaza. When Emily Thornberry was questioned on the same issue, her response was that 'Isreal has the absolute right to defend itself against terrorism'.

"Instead of engaging with the community on the issues raised, there have been sustained attempts to intimidate critical voices, tarring individual and local institutions, including mosques, with false accusations of threatening behaviour and intimidation.

"We believe these accusations are rooted in racism and Islamophobia, which cast Muslims and people of colour as dangerous and violent. To be clear, we've always campaigned peacefully and stand by our right to engage in political activism and protest," it added.

In a speech last October, Sir Keir Starmer referred to the two-state solution of "An Israel where every citizen enjoys the security they need, and a viable Palestinian state where the Palestinian people and their children enjoy the freedoms and opportunities we all take for granted.

"While I understand calls for a ceasefire, I don't believe that's the correct position because it always freezes any conflict in the state it currently lies.

"That would leave Hamas with the infrastructure and capability to carry out the sort of attack we saw on October 7."

A Luton council spokesperson said: “Last night the council had its annual full council meeting where councillors debate and set the budget for the following year. This is a public meeting in which members of the public can either watch online or in person in the Town Hall.

"Part way through the meeting members of the public mounted a vocal protest which interrupted the proceedings. The group were asked to respect the meeting and end their vocal protest, and it was explained to them that they could remain if they agreed to these conditions. As they refused to discontinue the vocal protest, there was a short pause while they were asked to leave by security so that the meeting could continue uninterrupted and complete its essential business on behalf of the whole community of Luton.

"We of course continue to fully support, respect, facilitate and advocate for the right for peaceful protest.”