WARRINGTON Friends of Palestine have blasted both Warrington MPs for their vote in the Palestine amendment in Parliament on Wednesday, November 15.

Neither Charlotte Nichols, MP for Warrington North, or Andy Carter, MP for Warrington South, voted in favour of the amendment to the King’s Speech, with Ms Nichols abstaining and Mr Carter voting the no.

The Warrington Pro-Palestine protest group have blasted the pair of MPs for this, saying ‘they have both chosen to support the deaths of so many more Palestinians in Gaza’.

A spokesperson for Warrington Friends of Palestine said:

“We are appalled at our MPs responses to the ceasefire vote last night, however we are neither shocked nor surprised. Make no mistake, whether they chose to abstain or vote against the call for a ceasefire, they have both chosen to support the deaths of so many more Palestinians in Gaza.

“In the last 40 days, over 1.7 million Palestinians - 700,000 of them children - have been internally displaced. The number of Palestinians killed, officially is being reported at around 12,000, but is likely over 15,000. 70% are women and children.

 “Our MPs voted to continue this bombardment. They voted to support genocide.

“And whilst Palestinians in Gaza suffer, Palestinians in the West Bank - where Hamas has no influence of power, have also seen concurrent increases in escalation by armed settlers and Israeli Occupation Forces, with over 200 killed and 1000+ displaced. What justification do they have for this?

 “We have attempted to contact our MPs via email calling for a ceasefire and heard no response. Andy has, on a number of occasions, blocked and deleted comments from his constituents regarding it, too.

 “Andy and Charlotte have put their party before their people, but they will see the consequences of this in the next general election.  

 “We invite both our MPs and the people in Warrington to our protest this Saturday - 1:30pm at the Town Hall."

Both MPs have responded to the vote, in partial agreement that the amendment tabled by the SNP Parliamentary group did not have the legal framework required to pressure Palestine or Israel to adhere to it.