MPs should stop obsessing over foreign issues and try fixing the problems here
Pity the poor lambs. Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang set out from Luton Airport to Israel's Ben Gurion, only to be detained by officials on arrival, and then deported. Hopefully they at least managed to get the local experience with a frothy café hafuch and a nice flaky rugelach at Terminal 3's Ilan's Coffee House during their short trip.
Their plan was to visit some West Bank charity projects, or, as Israel officials put it, 'to document Israeli security forces and spread hateful rhetoric against Israel'.
Both MPs had previously called for a boycott of Israel and the state thus concluded that it was their duty to deny entry to people who intended to cause it harm.
Mohamed and Yang were frightfully cross about this and back home rallied colleagues for a photo call in Westminster Hall on Monday.
How dare Israel stymie their weekend jaunt, was the message. 'There is no direct route into the West Bank. We have to go through Israel,' said Ms Mohamed. 'This act was not just a diplomatic affront. This wasn't about security. It was about control and censorship.'
In fact it was a salient reminder that these members of Parliament were elected to serve their constituents. The House of Commons was not in recess until April 8 of this week and one might assume that MPs had more appropriate things to do for their voters than gathering for photo calls about Israeli diplomacy or attempting entry to the occupied West Bank.
Mohamed was elected to represent Sheffield Central in July 2024. Yuan Yang is MP for Earley and Woodley, in Berkshire.
Sheffield's challenges are numerous. There is in-work poverty, the city has some of the lowest levels of pay in the UK, it's a de-industrialised metropolis with higher-than-average unemployment, there's a housing shortage, it's a city with high levels of pollution, high levels of crime and drug-taking and high levels of chronic ill-health.
Earley and Woodley also has its fair share of problems. Although generally more prosperous than central Sheffield, GP and dental appointments are hard to come by, one in five children are recorded as living in poverty and many school children are malnourished. As Yuan Yang said herself during the 2024 General Election campaign: 'We [need to] make sure that every child gets a proper breakfast before they start school.'
Quite how visiting the Palestinian territories helps these issues is anyone's guess. But it's sure as hell more fun than spending a Saturday shaking hands with the arts and crafts stallholders of Nether Edge or looking at potholes around Wokingham.
Grandstanding on international issues and joining an overseas parliamentary delegation is rather more wholesome. And it's an irresistible habit. Indeed just as rats as big as cats began to mooch about the streets of Birmingham, as mounds of rubbish piled up due to a bin strike after hundreds of Unite members walked out in a row with the Labour-run council, Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, flew to Tokyo.
He joined a House of Commons business committee jaunt, meeting opposite numbers in the Japanese parliament and then – as he was already out there – reportedly extended his stay for a holiday.
Thus while rodents nibbled their way through the rotting leftovers of Indian takeaways, Mr Byrne could avail himself of a tasting menu of omakase nigirizushi.
Similarly, at the end of March, Tahir Ali, MP for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, joined 20 parliamentarians in writing a letter to the prime minister of Pakistan urging him to build an airport in Mirpur. Granted they just wrote, signed and dispatched a letter and didn't fly to Islamabad (bunch of amateurs: all that 30-degree heat and sunshine, chicken karahi and chana chaat) but it left thousands of their constituents scratching their heads.
Sadly the reality is that unless you're in the Cabinet, and especially if you're in Opposition, being an MP is dull; all those tedious problems, moaning constituents who think you're the Citizen's Advice Bureau and the horror show that is the weekend surgery where you must listen to people whinging about their mouldy flats.
Far better a trip to a war zone or posturing on irrelevant infrastructure. Except that, sorry Mmes Mohamed and Yang, that's the job, that's the honour, to do the dirge, to clean up the mess on your own doorsteps. And if that's not sexy enough for you, quit your roles so we can have some nice fruity by-elections and get MPs elected who want to do the actual job.
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