‘Hysterical lefty rant!’ Tory MP rips into Owen Jones in clash over Remembrance protest

Dr Liam Fox accused Owen Jones of a “hysterical lefty rant” as the pair clashed over the pro-Palestine protest due to take place on Armistice Day.

The left-wing activist launched a tirade after the Tory MP raised concerns that some people could feel intimidated by the behaviour of any protesters who are not peaceful at the march in London on November 11.

During an appearance on Sky News’s Politics Hub programme, the former minister said: “It may well be an overwhelmingly peaceful march but the question is can that not peaceful element be contained and can it operate in a way where you will have a lot of veterans, old people, Jewish people in London who will feel intimidated. People should not feel afraid on our streets.”

Mr Jones, who is attending the demonstration this Saturday, replied: “To be clear there will be veterans, elderly people and Jewish people on the protest.

“I think if people turn up to the protest they will essentially see what is a family day out and a cross section of our communities. Not the image that has been portrayed by our politicians and by the media itself.

“If we’re going to go down the route Liam which you’re going to go down of trying to say, and you’re talking about people using hate, then if we’re going to do that then we can not only just go through random Conservative activists in the way they’re behaving on Twitter and hold you collectively responsible.”

Dr Fox branded Mr Jones’s comments as “nonsense”, adding: “This is nothing to do with this issue.”

Mr Jones went on: “Not only that Suella Braverman herself talking about hate marches when she has been rightly herself held to account for demonising and speaking about migrants and refugees in the most hate-filled way possible. It’s just an absurdity.

“Obviously at a football match, for example, you will get a few idiots. You don’t therefore hold all of those football fans responsible.

“If you have half a million people on the streets you will get some idiots who are not representative but we don’t use that to shut down football matches and we don’t use it to shut down the Conservative Party either.”

Host Sophy Ridge then pointed out that Dr Fox was not calling for the march to be blocked.

The ex-minister said: “This is a hysterical leftie rant. What we’re talking about are real people on my street who are terrified by people saying ‘end Israel’ and these are people who remember what the Holocaust was.”

Later in the programme, Dr Fox made similar comments as he accused Mr Jones of a “teenage hysterical rant” during a discussion on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The left-winger said: “People like yourself brought us Afghanistan, you said anyone who criticised the occupation that went on for two decades were Taliban stooges and we ended up with a Taliban stronger than ever.

“The same with Iraq, we were told we were stooges of Sadam Hussain, we had the blood and chaos and hundreds of thousands of people and Islamic extremism on the rampage.

“You gave us Libya and we got a failed state.”

But Dr Fox said: “Are you going to say anything about Gaza or are we just going to get this teenage hysterical rant?”

Mr Jones insisted it was “not teenage hysteria to use historical precedent to point out that every single time we have been told these military onslaughts are necessary they end in a greater catastrophe”.