Midland Heart suspends chair over Hamas comments on X

Midland Heart has suspended its chair, Lord Ian Austin, following comments he made on X/Twitter.

The former Labour MP for Dudley North, who now sits as a life peer in the House of Lords, wrote in a now-deleted post: “Everyone, better safe than sorry: before you go to bed, nip down and check you haven’t inadvertently got a death cult of Islamist murderers and rapists running their operations downstairs. It’s easily done.”

The comments were made in reference to Israel’s claims that Hamas was operating under the UNRWA base in Gaza. The aid agency has refuted knowledge of this.

Following the post, Midland Heart, which provides affordable homes for more than 70,000 people across the Midlands said on X/Twitter: “We’ve been contacted today regarding a post made by our chair earlier this week. He has since clarified the points made in this tweet and deleted the post. We understand the strength of feeling on this issue and like everyone are deeply saddened by the human tragedy.”

On Friday, it announced that it had suspended Lord Austin and a meeting was arranged for March 1 “in line with rules of the association, to discuss his removal from the board”.

Llewelyn Graham, senior independent board member and chief executive of Nehemiah Housing, “will step into the role of chair during this period”.

Austin was nominated for a life peerage in Boris Johnson’s Dissolution Honours list in 2020 and was named Baron Austin of Dudley. He’d been MP for Dudley North from 2005 until the 2019 general election when he stood down from the Labour Party. Lord Austin said the party had a “culture of extremism, anti-Semitism and intolerance” and became an independent MP.

After deleting the post, Lord Austin wrote: “People have complained about a tweet I issued at the weekend about Hamas’ operations centre being underneath UNWRA’s offices. It was not my intention to offend anyone and I have deleted it.

“As I have written and said many times – including in a national newspaper today – the vast majority of Muslims are just as appalled by racism and terrorism as everyone else.”

The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities Michael Gove said he was “deeply concerned” by Midland Heart’s actions.

He wrote in a statement: “Not only is Ian a champion for affordable housing, he has spent his career fighting racism.”

Gove said he will be writing to the Midland Heart board to “demand an urgent meeting and explanation”.