The former British Minister, Tony Lloyd, passed away yesterday.
There are few – very few – people of integrity in the political system in the UK. Fewer still who climb to some of the higher positions of power. Tony Lloyd MP, who passed away this week from luekemia, was of them. He was a junior minister in the Foreign Office when those of us who set up and were working on the Free Zakzaky campaign came in contact with him circa 1997.
Muallim Ibrahim El-Zakzaky had been imprisoned without charge by the junta of General Sani Abacha in September 1996. Tony Lloyd – perhaps contrary to the direction of travel set even then by the freshly elected New Labour administration of Tony Blair – took interest in the case and ensured that the FCO applied pressure on Abacha’s regime and on the Commonwealth to ensure that Mu’allim Zakzaky and the 1000+ other Islamic Movement prisoners were not forgotten.
In later years, having left high office, he continued to buck New Labour, ConDem and Conservative government diktats, notably opposing the Iraq War, and visiting Lebanon and Gaza with CAABU after Operation Cast Lead at a time when dissenting voices in the mainstream political narrative were even fewer than today.
Very sad to hear of the passing of Sir Tony Lloyd MP. Was fortunate to visit Lebanon & Syrian refugee communities with him in Lebanon in Jan 2012. This was him in Gaza, in Feb 2009, during @caabu delegation just after Israeli war, looking at the ruins of yet more Israeli… pic.twitter.com/urVKUp0Sa8
— Chris Doyle (@Doylech) January 17, 2024
Some of his recent words on the genocide in Gaza are presented here, from X / Twitter. The tweeter’s comment sums up the sorry state of the political milieu in the UK – indeed its depravity.
Take note…..#TonyLloyd pic.twitter.com/s7wi8QV370
— RosinaC (@RCantaldo) January 17, 2024
May God grant blessing to all the departed.
Photo used from OSCE Parliamentary Assembly CC2.0
