Labour MPs snapped in damning photo posing by flag of banned terror group responsible for killing hundreds of civilians
TWO Labour MPs have been snapped posing by a flag of a banned terror group responsible for killing hundreds of civilians.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer refused to sack his shadow minister Bambos Charalambous over the incident.
Enfield Southgate MP Mr Charalambous had posed in front of the PKK militants’ logo alongside Leftie Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
They were snapped in 2019 in the bedroom of activist Imam Sis, who was on hunger strike in solidarity with “political prisoners” jailed in Turkey.
One shocked source told The Sun: “This is really not a good sign for a party that claims to be the party of Law and Order.”
The hard-Left PKK — Kurdistan Workers Party — wants to break away from NATO ally Turkey and has been on the UK’s “proscribed” terror list since 2001.
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Showing public support, such as flag waving or posting logos online, can bring a ten-year jail term in the UK if you are a member.
It is illegal to “wear clothing or carry or display articles in public” that “arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation”.
The PKK is also banned across Europe and in the US.
Terrorists under the PKK flag have killed over 600 civilians in bomb and gun attacks in Turkey since 2015.
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In March 2016, a bomb attack in the Turkish capital Ankara killed 37 people and injured 125 more.
Tory MP Lee Anderson, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee, called for the two MPs and Sir Keir to apologise.
He said: “Here you have a frontbencher and a prominent backbencher associating with people who appear to support some of the most wicked people in the world.
“Sir Keir needs to make them apologise.”
Fellow Tory MP Henry Smith, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee added: “I think this displays appalling judgment by senior Labour MPs.”
Leftie MP Mr Russell-Moyle has been pressuring ministers to end the ban on supporting the organisation, saying they’re not terrorists.
Labour insiders said Mr Charalambous was not a frontbench MP when snapped in 2019 and that he was part of the All-Party parliamentary group on Kurdistan in Syria and Turkey.
They added it was “regrettable that Bambos did not appreciate the flag in the bedroom was the PKK flag”.
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The party source added that neither man supported the PKK “which is rightly a proscribed group”.
However, the Labour Party declined to comment.
PKK in 6K kills claim
BEING a member of the PKK has been illegal in Britain for over 20 years.
Under the Terrorism Act, membership of the group could carry a ten- year prison sentence.
The PKK was set up in the late 1970s by hard-left Soviet-inspired Kurdish radicals, who wanted south-eastern Turkey to become a separate nation.
They have carried out a spate of bombings targeting civilians, with 6,000 people killed in clashes – including 600 civilians and 1,400 Turkish soldiers.