Labour MP Reinstated After Suspension Over Middle East Speech

Middlesbrough’s Andy McDonald has been reinstated as Labour MP five months after his suspension over a speech he made at a pro-Palestinian rally. The Labour Party has restored Mr. McDonald’s whip following an investigation into the MP’s comments and the use of the phrase “between the river and the sea” at a protest in October 2023. The Middlesbrough MP was suspended after the party found his comments to be “deeply offensive” at a time when anti-Semitism was on the rise in the UK. Mr. McDonald said his words were “misrepresented” to mean the opposite of his message, which was a “heartfelt plea for an end to the killings in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank, and for all peoples in the region to live in freedom without the threat of violence.”...