UK lawmakers set to revoke ex-MP’s parliamentary pass for hosting Press TV show

A committee of British MPs is expected to meet this week to decide whether to revoke the parliamentary access of former Labour MP Chris Williamson over his role as a host of a weekly program on Press TV.

Williamson holds one of around 300 security passes issued to former MPs to address the British Parliament and he could lose his privileged access within days when the Commons' Administration Committee meets to review the matter, according to a report in the Daily Mail. 

In a tweet on Monday, Williamson, a staunch ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, laid out the reasons why he thinks the serving MPs would want to strip him of his access to the British Parliament.

“Apparently a committee of MPs is meeting this week to decide whether to take my parliamentary pass away because I present a weekly programme on PressTV about Palestine, and because I've criticised the govt's support for NATO's proxy war in #Ukraine,” he wrote.

A lifelong socialist, trade unionist, anti-imperialist and animal rights campaigner, Williamson served as a Labour Councillor, Council Leader, Member of Parliament and a Shadow Minister under Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.

He was first elected to the British Parliament from 2010 to 2015 and went on to serve another term between 2017 and 2019.

Since March 2022, Williamson has been hosting Press TV's weekly show, Palestine Declassified, after previously appearing as a guest on Iran's premier English-language news network.

The popular show sheds light on the Israeli occupying regime's atrocities against Palestinians, and the global solidarity for the Palestinian cause. 

Press TV has been banned in Britain since 2013.

British parliament considers revoking security pass of ex-Labour MP over hosting Press TV show

The British parliament is considering the revocation of a security pass held by former Labour MP Chris Williamson over hosting a show broadcast on Iran’s international English television news network, Press TV.

Williamson recently provoked many pro-war acolytes in the West by suggesting that Volodymyr Zelensky was a "neo-Nazi backed hypocrite" on the same day that the Ukrainian president addressed the British parliament.

"My former colleagues in Parliament are in thrall to Nato militarism, which endangers British and global security," he was later cited as saying by MailOnline.

"Nato's cheerleaders in Parliament are allied with — and arming — Nazis in Ukraine who were behind the Kyiv regime's eight-year-long bombardment of the Donbas region prior to the Russian special operation.

"If they were serious about ending the war in Ukraine, they would have counseled Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cease his bluster and get to the negotiating table."

On his parliamentary pass, the 66-year-old said the "confected controversy" was "another reminder of the disturbing scale of censorship that pervades British society today".

"Anyone who doesn't fall in line to idly cheer America's wars is particularly vulnerable to state censure."

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir