OPINION - Wes Streeting's election battle over Israel-Gaza is especially sad given Ilford's historic diversity
Two or three times a year my school would half-empty, leaving the remaining gentiles, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to twiddle our thumbs. That was because in Ilford, Jewish children were excused for religious holidays. It was, after all, a Jewish community. I grew up in the Ilford North constituency in the Eighties, so watching its Labour MP, Wes Streeting, face a challenge from a Muslim independent candidate because he has refused to denounce Israel feels particularly sorrowful.
Ilford was hardly utopia back then.
