Old habits die hard! David Ward ‘would fire a rocket’ at ex-Lib Dem colleague

Ousted Liberal Democrat MP David Ward has drawn upon infamous comments he made during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in a tweet that said he would “fire a rocket” at a former cabinet minister and colleague. 

The anti-Israel politician – who lost his Bradford East seat by 7,000 votes at this month’s General Election – posted to his Twitter page:  “If I lived in #OrkneyandShetlands would I fire a rocket at #AlistairCarmichael? – probably yes”, in reference the recent controversy surrounding the leak of a Cabinet Office memo by his fellow Lib Dem, who served as Scottish Secretary under the coalition.  

He also posted a tweet accusing the world of “looking the other way” from the “suppression of Palestinians”, which read: “Rocket fired from #Gaza makes international news – day in day out suppression of #Palestinians and the world looks the other way”.

Ward, who recently stated that his election defeat meant he was now “free of my Whip to support Palestinians”, posted the message on the site, which drew upon a similarly contreversial post from the previous year. 

In 2014, Ward said “The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? – probably yes”. At the time, it was slammed by the Chairman of the Conservative Party, the Jewish MP Grant Shapps, as “incitement to violence”. 

In 2013, Carmichael suspended Ward from the party in his capacity as Lib Dem Chief Whip after the latter posted a tweet “questioning the continued existence of the State of Israel”.