As the Labour Party returns formally to reality and makes the unremarkable statement that criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic, North West Durham has an interesting history.
When the boundary changes incorporated Consett into this seat, then the pioneering pro-Palestinian parliamentarian David Watkins had to go up for the Labour nomination against Ernest Armstrong, who believed, like his daughter and successor, that the modern State of Israel was the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy.
The Armstrongs won, and the rest is history.
Although rarely noted, the removal of Watkins (by one vote, because his mandated delegate from [redacted for 100 years] did not turn up...) was one of the most significant Zionist victories in dictating the composition of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and it paved the way for the accession of the Chief Whip at the time of the Iraq War.
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