Keir Starmer’s Government Is Leaving the Hunger Strikers to Die

A shameful end to 2025.

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With parliament’s Christmas hiatus beckoning, there’s one shameful chapter left wide open: the six hunger-striking prisoners, who become more likely to sustain irreversible physical damage or die with every hour of government inaction. 

At least two of the detainees, held in connection to Palestine Action activism, have now surpassed day 48 of refusing food. Day 46 was the point at which one of the 23 participants in the Irish republican hunger strike of 1981 died as part of the struggle against Britain’s colonial occupation of Ireland. 

But Starmer and his cabinet seem to have nothing to say. 

When challenged by Jeremy Corbyn to commit to meeting representatives of the hunger strikers in the Commons on Wednesday, the prime minister replied that he is following the ‘rules and procedures’ in place. 

These ‘rules and procedures’ seem unlikely to safeguard the lives of those who remain on hunger strike: Amu Gibb (Amy Gardiner-Gibson), Qesser Zuhrah, Heba Muraisi, Teuta ‘T’ Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed and Lewie Chiaramello.

Zuhrah, Muraisi, Hoxha and Ahmed are part of the ‘Filton 24’, held in connection with a break-in at an Elbit Systems weapons factory, while Gibb and Chiaramello are held in connection with damage to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton, where planes were splashed with red paint. 

Zuhrah, who has refused food since 2 November, saw her health deteriorate severely this week, experiencing severe chest pain, the inability to stand and repeated loss of consciousness. She was taken to hospital on Wednesday from HMP Bronzefield after hours of protest outside the privately-run prison. 

Campaign group Prisoners For Palestine (PFP) said they had repeatedly attempted to call an ambulance for Zuhrah over a period of 19 hours, but were informed by 999 call handlers that the emergency vehicle would just be turned away by the prison.  

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Doctor ‘Strangled’ by Police Officer Until She Passed Out at Hunger Strike Protest

She spent the night in A&E.

A police officer at a protest for the Palestine Action hunger strikers strangled a doctor until she passed out by dragging her by the back of her hoodie, the doctor has told Novara Media.

Dr Olivia Brandon was among several medical professionals who gathered with other supporters outside HMP Bronzefield on Wednesday 17 December to demand the prison allow in an ambulance to treat a hunger striker suffering from severe chest pains.

The alleged attack came after police arrested two protesters, including psychiatric doctor Dr Ayo Moiett, who protesters say was targeted both because he is black and because he played a pivotal role in forcing the prison to eventually let the ambulance come.  

Brandon, who works in the A&E department at a London hospital, said she and other protesters sat in the road to prevent police vans from leaving with the detainees – after which officers “started assaulting everyone” as they cleared the road.

She felt an officer grab her hoodie from behind and then drag her along the road.

“I was wearing a tight jumper under my hoodie and because of the force the officer was using, this was strangling me. I remember retching and being in a lot of pain,” she said.

In video footage of the incident, Brandon can be heard choking as she raises a hand to her throat.  

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