Mick Lynch has come under fire for appearing to compare Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the slave trade.

The general secretary of the RMT union said a decision by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to end some arms sales to the Jewish state was akin to the liberation of some slaves in the nineteenth century.

Last week the Government announced it was suspending 30 out of around 350 arms licences to Israel, which was condemned as “shameful” by Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s prime minister.

Mr Lynch’s comments were branded “deeply offensive” and Labour has been urged to distance itself from them.

Speaking at a pro-Palestine fringe event at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference, Mr Lynch said: “I saw David Lammy making this major intervention last week. Some licences will not be renewed or will be revoked. Some licences, what was it? 30 out of 150 or something of that number?

“This is like somebody standing up in front of you in the 1840s and saying: ‘I’m going to abolish some slavery. I’m going to liberate some people. I’m going to do this measure, but it’s only going to apply in this very small way.’”

He added: “We’ve got to make sure that if we’re going to run a campaign, Labour is feeling the heat … and doing the stuff that I think instinctively many of the people in the leadership of the Labour Party would want to do.

“So we’ve got to make them comfortable [in the belief] that support for the Palestinian people is a mainstream idea, just as people all over this movement were happy to identify with the anti-Apartheid campaign in the 70s and 80s.”

‘Deeply offensive comparison’

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “When David Lammy announced the arms embargo, I warned that this attempt to satisfy certain wings of the Labour movement while not offending Israel would fail.

“Mick Lynch’s remarks at the TUC conference, condemning the Government for not going further, are a case in point.

“However, the comparison Lynch draws with slavery is also deeply offensive to an ally of the UK. Labour must distance themselves from Lynch’s extraordinary comments immediately.”

Lord Mann, the former Labour MP who was reappointed as the Government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism in July, said it was not a “very clever analogy to make, either in substance or in language” and suggested Mr Lynch “rows back and withdraws it”.

Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Buckingham and member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group, branded the comparison “bonkers”.

“The Left are obsessed with bashing Israel, trying to deny our ally from being able to defend themselves,” he said.

“It’s utterly bizarre in the first place that there are anti-Israel fringe meetings at a trade union conference. Then the comments made trying to compare a democracy trying to defend themselves with slavery are off-the-charts bonkers.”

Jewish voters ‘upset’

Mr Lammy’s decision proved extremely controversial, with some Labour MPs warning it had made many Jewish voters “upset and angry”. Others on the Left urged the Government to go further, with some calling for a blanket ban.

According to export licensing criteria, arms exports should only be stopped if it can be demonstrated the weapons are going to be used in violation of international humanitarian law.

Mr Lammy has previously described himself as a “descendant of enslaved people”, with ancestors who “weren’t emancipated until the 19th century”.

On Wednesday, the TUC backed a motion urging the Government to end all licences for arms traded with Israel and immediately recognise Palestine as a state, contributing to a two-state solution.

Addressing the conference, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, said it was “unconscionable” for Britain to continue supplying weapons to Israel.

“While we welcome the decision by the UK Government to suspend some arms licences to Israel, it is simply unconscionable, unconscionable that the UK should continue to deliver any arms to Israel, given what it is clear to everyone, including according to UK lawyers, to be a grave violation of international law,” he said.

“This is a legal obligation, domestically and internationally.”

PCS union’s legal threat

Meanwhile, a union representing civil servants threatened to take legal action to protect those of its members who work in departments granting licences for arms export to Israel, if the Government failed to “respect international law”.

Despite the Government’s decision to suspend some exports, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), reiterated a warning it made to the previous Tory government.

In April, Paul O’Connor, the PCS’s head of bargaining, said the union believed Israel’s alleged actions in Gaza could be considered genocide. He said the PCS was “seriously considering taking legal action to prevent our members from being forced to carry out unlawful acts”.

At the TUC fringe event on Tuesday evening, Fran Heathcote, the PCS general secretary, vowed to “continue to explore the possibility” of a legal challenge.

She said: “Our PCS members work in government departments that grant weapons licences, and if the Government doesn’t respect international law, we will continue to explore the possibility of taking legal action in defence of those members.”

Ms Heathcote warned Sir Keir Starmer against turning a “blind eye” to the treatment of Palestinians, suggesting his administration had so far “stood by”. She said: “If you believe in the international rule of law, then you apply it. 

“If you respect it, then you follow that up with action, and not just empty words. The horrific reports coming out of the West Bank in recent weeks demonstrate what happens when you turn a blind eye and you condone war crimes.”