VOTING for Labour MPs who have failed to back a ceasefire in Gaza is supporting complicity in genocide, a British-Palestinian independent candidate says.

Tanushka Marah, who is standing in Hove and Portslade, told the Morning Star that Labour MPs who abstained in last year’s ceasefire vote in the Commons have blood on their hands.

She was selected by pro-Palestine and socialist groups to challenge Peter Kyle, a member of Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet who has held the constituency for nine years.

The shadow science, innovation and technology secretary is a vice-chairman of Labour Friends for Israel and has consistently defended the pariah state.

He was named in a Declassified UK investigation this week as among the quarter of MPs who have accepted funds from pro-Israel lobbyists.

Mr Kyle did not respond to requests for comment on this matter.

Ms Marah told the Morning Star: “I want to represent those in the community who are outraged by the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“Peter Kyle doesn’t speak for those who want to see a ceasefire in Gaza — he failed to vote for one.

“And those who vote for MPs who have failed to call for a ceasefire are supporting complicity in Israel’s genocide.”

Mr Kyle should certainly not be complacent about his chances of victory on July 4. 

He limped into the seat in 2015 with a tiny majority of 1,236, before increasing it to 18,757 in 2017 — riding on the coattails of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s popular election campaign.

Ms Marah, who has received a glowing endorsement from socialist film-maker Ken Loach, is one of a number of independent candidates across Britain who are challenging both the Tories and Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour.

Her grassroots-based election campaign stands for a free Palestine and an end to funding for wars, protection of the NHS and other public services from cuts and privatisation and action to tackle the climate emergency and housing crisis.

The theatre director and mother-of-two, whose father is from Bethlehem and mother from Jordan, also takes aim at the cost-of-greed crisis and is calling for a £15 minimum wage.

She said: “I want to speak for those who have been forgotten by the main political parties.

“Housing is a huge issue in Brighton and Hove and the root of so many of our problems. There needs to be rent caps and penalties on empty homes.

“Austerity and policies like the two-child benefit cap steals from the mouths of the poorest here, while rising military spending is funding wars and atrocities overseas. 

“The horrors we are seeing on our screens in Gaza and Palestine are the ugly culmination of where capitalism, profit and greed take us.”

For more information on Ms Marah’s campaign, visit tanushkamarah.com.