Tragedies are often the moment when statesmen are at their best. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen from the response to yesterday’s attacks by Hamas on Israel, they can also show politicians at their worst. Below are five of the more insensitive, tone-deaf and even downright offensive reactions to the tragedy that is unfolding in the Middle East…

Jeremy Corbyn

Where else to start? Step forward Jeremy Corbyn, the man who sinks to every occasion. The Right Honourable Member for Islington North reacted to the Hamas attack with his signature blend of cynicism and equivocation, declaring that:

The unfolding events in Israel and Palestine are deeply alarming. We need an immediate ceasefire and urgent de-escalation. And we need a route out of this tragic cycle of violence: ending the occupation is the only means of achieving a just and lasting peace.

No word on who to blame eh Jezza?

Apsana Begum MP

The hard-left Labour MP posed with the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign Group (PSC) yesterday afternoon, just five hours after it had announced a protest outside the Israeli embassy, blaming the terror attacks on Israel’s own behaviour. The representative for Poplar and Limehouse received ‘special thanks’ from the PSC on X, formerly Twitter, for showing ‘solidarity’ with their cause. Some 14 hours later and still Labour are refusing to suspend her…

Novara media

Cast your mind back to the heady days of 2017 when the hard-of-thinking scribes over at Novara media were regularly wheeled out on the BBC to bat for the Magic Grandpa. With Corbyn now consigned to the ash heap of history, his cheerleaders have mercifully receded from the limelight. And this weekend has offered us a useful reminder of what pearls of wisdom we are missing out on. Commissioning editor Rivkah Brown declared yesterday that:

Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gazans break out of their open-air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers’ territory. The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn’t apologise for it.

While Novara podcast host Michael Walker asked rhetorically ‘Do we support the rights of an occupied people to fight an occupier or not?’ And to think, these people could have had real power in a Corbyn government….

Sinn Féin

How did the youth wing of the largest party in the Northern Irish Assembly respond to the massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians by Islamist terrorists? By changing their profile picture on social media to one of a Palestinian flag. Classy. Martina Anderson, the party’s representative to Europe, meanwhile shared a picture of herself next to the Palestinian flag. She tweeted that the ‘violent offensive by Palestinian forces has occurred against a sustained intensification of the Israeli state’s occupation and apartheid in Palestine since 2022.’ Talk about keeping up tradition.

Ross Greer

Under the Bute House Agreement, Green MSP Ross Greer represents a party of Scottish Government. How did he opt to respond to this weekend’s events? By saying people have a ‘right’ to attack Israel. He wrote on X that ‘Palestinians have a clear right under international law to defend themselves, including by attacking their occupiers’ adding ‘War won’t solve this, ending the occupation will.’ Citizen Smith, without the laughs.