Justice Secretary David Lammy has claimed that he has no idea about the political prisoners currently on hunger strike in the UK. Shahmina Alam confronted the ‘justice’ secretary about her brother, Kamran Ahmed, who is currently on hunger strike. Shamima explained that Kamran’s family have written to both Lammy and the Ministry of Justice – and Lammy maintained that he hasn’t even heard about the hunger strikers.
Prisoners for Palestine posted the shocking clip of Lammy running away from hunger strikers families:
Justice Secretary and Deputy PM David Lammy runs away from hunger strikers family. It’s been 35 days of hunger striking in British prison with no response for him.
They demand immediate bail. They have been held in prison for upto 2 years without charge for Palestinian activism pic.twitter.com/LtWbetYva4
— Prisoners For Palestine (@Prisoners4Pal) December 6, 2025
Does anyone really believe Lammy hasn’t heard of the hunger strikers?
Muhammad Umer Khalid became the seventh hunger striker on Thursday, December 4. He joined the other activists including, Kamran Ahmed, Amu Gib, and Jon Cink Mothin Ali, co-deputy leader of the Green Party reposted the post and added:
Burying your head won’t make things go away, we demand justice! We won’t go away until we have it!
Ali became the first politician to visit imprisoned Palestine Action activists on a prolonged hunger strike, calling their condition “horrifying” and “inhumane.” He visited two activists in HMP Bronzefield – Amu Gib and Jon Cink – describing them as on their “last legs,” visibly frail, and struggling with health issues after more than 30 days without food. In an exclusive interview with the Canary Ali described meeting the hunger strikers:
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‘Gravely concerned’
And, Lammy really doesn’t have a leg to stand on given the fact that Jeremy Corbyn wrote to him on November 20th to say that he was “gravely concerned” for the health of the hunger strikers and demanded an urgent meeting with the Justice Secretary to discuss the matter.
Corbyn built his appeal around the desperate situation of his own constituent, Amu Gib. Gib has been locked up on remand since June 2025, with his trial not even on the calendar until January 2027. This timeline, Corbyn noted, means Gib is facing over eighteen months in pre-trial detention, far exceeding the standard custodial limit of 182 days.
Gib and Ahmed are among two dozen Palestine Action activists currently imprisoned without trial, with several now having been detained for over a year. The letter condemned the government’s earlier proscription of Palestine Action. And, Corbyn also took Lammy to task for his role in Israel’s genocide of Palestine:
This government could have ended arms sales to Israel and upheld its legal obligations to prevent genocide. Instead, it is criminalising those who dare to oppose British complicity in the mass murder of Palestinians. We will keep campaigning for an end to military cooperation with Israel, and for the only path to peace: freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
Corbyn has also tabled an Early Day Motion on Thursday, December 4, supported by thirteen other MPs including Zarah Sultana, which expresses:
its extreme concern that six prisoners associated with Palestine Action have felt that they had no other recourse to protest against their prison conditions but to launch a hunger strike; and calls upon the Secretary of State for Justice to intervene urgently to ensure their treatment is humane and their human rights are upheld.
Mothin Ali, Jeremy Corbyn, and Zarah Sultana have all done what they can to draw the attention of the media and other politicians to the political prisoners who have been pushed to a hunger strike. But, Lammy scurrying away from the families of the hunger strikers says it all about the British political class’ relationship to Israel’s genocide: immoral and afraid of consequences.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.