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I read all sorts of rubbish that Rachel Reeves is not up to the job as Chancellor, that she’s out of her depth and needs to be sacked. I would disagree. Rachel is the consummate Westminster actor. There was that time when she seemed on the verge of tears and gained the nation’s sympathy - people just didn’t like to see Britain’s first female Chancellor being bullied by those nasty Tories. Rachel has also softened her look. Gone are those days when she appeared in Sunday Times photoshoots, sitting in a public urinal looking like she was ready to audition for a film about the culture and fashions in Nazi Germany. Yesterday, Rachel appeared at the Despatch Box and gave one of her most accomplished performances, announcing that the government will be prepared to step in to help people and businesses that will suffer adversely because of the sharp increase in fuel prices caused by the US-Israel war on Iran. The controversies and deceptions seem to have been mostly forgotten. The impressive looking but not threatening business suit, the soft colours, her academic, serious demeanour giving the impression that this was a prominent minister fully in control of her brief. All this talk about Angela Rayner making a challenge for the Labour leadership when the real contender - Reeves herself - was confidently looking like a prime minister in waiting right there before our eyes. As I watched this compassionate, empathetic version of Rachel Reeves, I had to constantly remind myself that was the same person who supports unconditionally the actions and ideological aims of the Israeli regime responsible for invading Iran, for invading, bombing and annexing Lebanon and for the industrial, full-scale slaughter and destruction in Gaza. The same regime responsible for these difficulties now being experienced in the UK. For Rachel Reeves, as a member, Parliamentary Officer and former vice chair, is effectively the leader in the Commons of the lobby organisation Labour Friends of Israel. She was the ‘keynote speaker’ at the organisation’s end of year luncheon and gathering at the Park Plaza Hotel in London. What Reeves showed yesterday is how Labour Friends of Israel members operate in two parallel universes at Westminster. She got up at the Despatch Box to talk about the impact of the war but remained resolutely silent about the cause of the war, the human casualties and devastation being caused in the region. This is how the public are deceived by the Labour Friends of Israel membership - they go on their funded visits to Israel, hold their conferences and plush luncheons in London and operate in a secretive world detached from the electorate and most of the population. They robotically advocate for a two-state solution but all the while they fraternise and have their photos taken with the worst extremists in the Israeli government such as Tzipi Hotovely and Isaac Herzog. Herzog is an indicted war criminal at the International Court of Justice but this doesn’t stop Labour Friends of Israel regarding him as a hero. When @RachelReevesMP speaks at Labour Friends of Israel gatherings she is a different person altogether to the one who appeared in Parliament yesterday. She is an aggressive, zealous defender of Zionism and all of its aims, she was the first MP as I remember who wanted to see criticism of Zionism made a criminal offence, she genuinely believes, as all Zionists in this Labour government do (not least Starmer), that any criticism of Zionism - no matter how legitimate it is - amounts to antisemitism. These are the views that underpin this Labour government. Any dissenting opinions will not be tolerated. If there was real transparency in the House of Commons then every MP member of Labour/Conservative/Lib Dems/Reform Friends of Israel would be required to declare their membership before speaking - as they were required to do in that recent Committee meeting that caused quite a stir. It would change everything. @UKLabour @_LFI