A mosque in South Wales that hosted Sir Keir Starmer has apologised for the “hurt and confusion” caused by the visit after a backlash from some within the Muslim community.
The South Wales Islamic Centre issued a statement late on Tuesday evening in which it sought to “clarify our stance” following the Labour leader’s visit on Sunday.
It said subsequent social media posts by Sir Keir “gravely misrepresented our congregants and the nature of the visit” which it said “put the South Wales Islamic Centre and the wider Muslim community into disrepute”.
The statement has reignited tensions within the Labour Party over its stance on Gaza, with one source telling Sky News there had been a “pattern of behaviour” that had been “deeply insensitive” to the Muslim community and left some MPs and staff “in tears”.
Sky News understands that there will be a meeting tomorrow in which Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner will meet Muslim MPs to address the ongoing situation.
The Labour leader made the visit to the mosque against the backdrop of criticism from within his own party at the position he had taken towards Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack on 7 October.
More on Israel-hamas War
Related Topics:
In the immediate days after the Hamas incursion, Sir Keir gave an interview with LBC in which he appeared to suggest that the Israel’s decision to withhold water and power from Gaza was proportionate and justified.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:02
‘Crisis getting deeper and deeper’
In the widely shared clip, the Labour leader was asked what a “proportionate” response would look like, to which Sir Keir replied that responsibility “lies with Hamas” and that Israel “has the right to defend herself”.
Advertisement
Presenter Nick Ferrari interjected: “A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water?”
The Labour leader replied: “I think that Israel does have that right. It is an ongoing situation.”
He added: “Obviously everything should be done within international law, but I don’t want to step away from the core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself and Hamas bears responsibility for the terrorist acts.”
The comments prompted 23 Labour councillors to resign in protest.
The Labour leader then sought to clarify his remarks, saying that while he believed Israel had a “right to self-defence”, that did not mean it should withhold humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is home to 2.2 million civilians.
In the statement, the mosque’s representatives said they “fully understand and share the anger many in the Muslim community are feeling, both here in Wales and across the UK” and added: “We apologise for the hurt and confusion that our hosting of this visit has caused.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:36
IDF ‘ready to go in if they have to’
“Our strength is in our unity, and we are aware that this visit has weakened and undermined that unity.”
They said the Labour leader visited the mosque at “short notice” but there was a a “robust and frank conversation which reflected the sentiments Muslim communities are feeling at this time”.
“Members of the community directly challenged Keir on his statements made on the Israeli government’s right to cut food, electricity and water to Gaza, warranting war crimes as well as his failure to call for an immediate ceasefire.”
The statement came after Sir Keir posted a tweet from the visit, in which he said he had “repeated our calls for all hostages to be released, more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, for the water and power to be switched back on, and a renewed focus on the two state solution”.
Twitter
This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.
Sources questioned the Labour leader’s decision to mention hostages at the mosque, with one saying: “People have been killed and we are calling for hostages to be released. They are nothing to do with it.
“Our policy seems to be to alienate the Muslim community.”
A Labour MP also told Sky News: “Wouldn’t it have been better to say you spoke with congregants and acknowledged the grief and fear many had, stood with them against rising islamophobia and gave a commitment that we would not stand for the situation in Israel and Gaza being used to divide communities here?
“I think he just needs some lessons in less robotic and awkward comms from Sadiq, Burnham and Sarwar, who seem to do better in empathy and capturing the mood better.
“You don’t need to get all the lines out in every tweet. How was that centre going to help release hostages? It was a pointless and irrelevant thing to add.”
The MP called on the Labour leader to apologise for the initial LBC interview as well as backing a ceasefire or “humanitarian pause”.
A number of Labour MPs have begun making calls for a ceasefire or humanitarian pause, including chair of the International Development Committee Sarah Champion, Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy, and former shadow cabinet minister Rosena Allin-Khan.
The United Nations, the Palestinians and many other countries made the request at a high-level UN meeting today, but Israel’s foreign minister said it was the country’s “right to destroy Hamas”.
However, the government and the Labour Party have not yet called for a ceasefire.
I’ve been around a while and seen a lot of the insides of international summits over the years, but this one was truly extraordinary.
Over 20 leaders flew to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from all over the world – Indonesia, Pakistan, Norway, Canada – to witness the signing of Donald Trump’s peace plan.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:05
‘We have peace in Middle East’
This historic day was pure theatre for Trump from start to finish. Flying in from Israel, where he had met hostage families and then addressed the Israeli parliament, he arrived a whopping three hours late, keeping a gaggle of world leaders waiting.
We stood around in corridors watching them move from one room to another to hold meetings with each other, presumably to talk about phase two of Trump’s peace deal.
Testimony to the power of Trump
At one point, Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with his Turkish counterpart included France’s Emmanuel Macro. That then somehow morphed into a summit which also brought in the Germans, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar. More chairs kept coming into the room until there was the equivalent of a cabinet table of leaders and advisors sitting in a long line facing each other.
What they were talking about was how each country could help in phase two of the peace effort. Now Trump had, alongside fellow signatories of this deal – Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey – ended the war, could they maintain the peace?
As Starmer put it: “We can’t treat today as historic and let it drop tomorrow.”
But these mini summits in the margins happened by fault rather than design. This day really was designed to bear witness – and offer acknowledgement – to Trump. All of these leaders turned up pretty much in the dark as to what the day held, with his peace summit convened 48 hours earlier.
That they dropped plans to make their way to Egypt is testimony to the power Trump wields.
Image: World leaders at the Gaza peace summit
He was utterly omnipotent. First, there was the greeting ceremony, in which each leader filed in individually for a photo and handshake with him before all returning to the stage for the family photo.
Then, at the signing ceremony, Trump sat with his three fellow signatories as the world leaders stood behind him.
“This took 3,000 years to get to this point. Can you believe it?” Trump said as he signed that deal. “And it’s going to hold up, too. It’s going to hold up.”
Finally, in another giant hall, Trump gave a speech in which he ran through all the leaders who had turned up – praising them or fondly poking a bit of fun at them accordingly, as (most) of them stood behind him.
He teased Macron for sitting in the front row rather than joining the others on the stage, joking it wasn’t like him to be low-key. He described Meloni as a “beautiful young woman”.
“I’m not allowed to say it because usually it’s the end of your political career if you say it – she’s a beautiful young woman,” said Trump mid-speech. “You don’t mind being called beautiful, right? Because you are,” he turned to say to her – her reaction obscured from view.
Now for the ‘easy part’?
Soon after, the prime minister of Pakistan, invited to say a few remarks by Trump, renewed his call for the US president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Having brokered the deal, Trump took the moment and made it into his summit on his terms, as fellow leaders fell into line, literally standing behind him. And in his characteristic bullishness, he told his audience in this final speech that the hard part – the ceasefire – had been done, and rebuilding Gaza was the easy part.
Image: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
That isn’t really what the rest of them believe: 92% of Gazans have been displaced, the Gaza Strip is a wasteland. Organising a peacekeeping force, getting Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the strip, putting together a technocratic team and peace board to oversee the running of Gaza still needs to be done.
This was a largely celebratory day, but there are concerns whether this deal will hold up. Trump says Hamas needs to disarm and disband, and yet one of their most senior leaders told Sky News a few days ago, it won’t.
Meanwhile, there is a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The UK has in short order sent in £20m of aid to try to help with sanitation.
On the British side, the prime minister said he had offered to help demilitarise the strip, saying the UK can take a role in “monitoring the ceasefire but also decommissioning the capability of Hamas and their weaponry, drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland”.
“It’s really important we keep that focus. We mustn’t have any missteps now,” he said.
Image: Drone footage of Gaa
Trump’s peace board is still in its infancy – Starmer told me he isn’t going to sit on it, with the make-up still being discussed, while Tony Blair’s participation is controversial.
Trump said on the way over to Egypt that he was going to canvass opinion to make sure everyone is happy with the former prime minister’s presence. It comes after Bassem Naim of Hamas told Sky News that Blair was not welcome in Gaza after his role in the invasion of Iraq.
When I asked Starmer if he thought Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he said “there’ll be plenty of people, I’m sure, nominating him” – as he paid tribute to him for getting “leaders to this position”.
Now the task for them all is to implement what Trump has set in train. If his plan works, he would be sitting on an achievement that has eluded successive US presidents for decades.
Trump should rightly be lauded for ending the war, now he must bring the peace.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, has claimed the UK played a “vital role” in helping negotiate the Gaza peace deal, smoothing over a potential diplomatic row between London and Washington.
Witkoff took to X on Monday, ahead of meeting President Donald Trump in Israel, to praise the UK.
“I would like to acknowledge the vital role of the United Kingdom in assisting and coordinating efforts that have led us to this historic day in Israel,” Witkoff wrote.
“In particular, I want to recognise the incredible input and tireless efforts of National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell.”
His comments came 24 hours after education secretary Bridget Phillipson was branded “delusional” by Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, for claiming that Sir Keir Starmer’s presence at a signing ceremony for today’s ceasefire deal in Egypt “demonstrates the key role that we [Britain] have played”.
Phillipson added: “We have played a key role behind the scenes in shaping this.
“It’s right that we do so because it’s in all of our interest, including our own national interest, that we move to a lasting peace in the region.
“These are complex matters of diplomacy that we are involved in. But we do welcome and recognise the critical role that the American government played in moving us to this point.”
Her comments prompted Mr Huckabee to repost the Sky News clip on social media, claiming: “I assure you she’s delusional.”
He added: “She can thank Donald Trump anytime just to set the record straight.”
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Mr Huckabee was part of the negotiating team for the peace deal, with Mr Trump calling the former Arkansas governor “AMAZING” as he said he “worked so hard, and did so much, to bring about peace in the Middle East”.
In August, Mr Huckabee said the UK and other European nations that said they would declare a Palestinian state were “having the counterproductive effect that they probably think that they want”.
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Israel’s deputy foreign affairs minister, Sharren Haskell backed Huckabee, telling Sky News the UK played “the opposite” of a key role in the peace deal after recognising the Palestinian state.
“The message that the UK government has sent Hamas was the message that: the longer they continue this war, they will be rewarded.
“I mean, you must understand that when a terrorist organisation is thanking you. You are on the wrong side of history.”
It is understood the prime minister has underlined Mr Trump’s key role in securing this deal throughout the process. Publicly, he praised Mr Trump twice in his press conference in India on Thursday.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:59
Final preparations for hostages in Israeli hospital
Ms Phillipson stood by the September decision to declare a Palestinian state, saying it was “the right thing to do”.
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, told Sky News it was a “moment of leadership” for the UK to declare a Palestinian state, and a “responsibility to begin to correct a century of the gravest historic injustices committed against our people”.
He added: “That moment three weeks ago, when the UK did recognise, is a moment when we can say that the wheels of history are turning in a different direction.”
No plans for British troops on the ground
The education secretary also told Sky News the government has “no plans” to put British troops into Israel or Gaza as part of a stabilisation force after the ceasefire.
The US military will help establish a multinational force in Israel, known as a civil-military coordination centre, which is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE.
Image: Tens of thousands of Palestinians have walked back to Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Pic: AP
On Friday, US officials said up to 200 US troops already based in the Middle East will be moved to Israel to help monitor the ceasefire in Gaza.
The day before, President Trump announced Israel and Hamas had “signed off on the first phase” of a peace plan he unveiled last week.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Aid trucks have been gathering in Egypt to cross into Gaza after months of warnings by aid groups of famine in parts of the territory.
In Israel, the remaining hostages are due to be returned from Gaza by Hamas on Monday under the first phase of the peace plan. Twenty are believed to still be alive, 26 have been declared dead, while the fate of two is unknown.
The ceasefire agreement has been made two years after Hamas stormed Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN deems reliable.