Pro-Palestinian activists protested outside a Labour campaign event to demand an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Around 40 people gathered outside St Augustine’s Arts and Events Centre in Stanford Avenue, Brighton, where Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion Tom Gray was holding his election campaign launch.

The protesters held banners that said “ceasefire”, waved the Palestinian flag outside the venue and chanted “no ceasefire, no vote”.

However, one person who had been hoping to attend the launch said she was “too scared” to go inside because of the “intimidating” protest.

She told The Argus: “I was heading to the event and saw they were shouting at people leaving on the street.

“As I approached, one of them blocked my path and started filming me. I had to ask him to move twice.

“He started yelling my name to the others and one woman called me an idiot. They were yelling my full name through a megaphone, shouted shame on you and that I had blood on my hands.

“It was very intimidating and scary. I was just trying to hear what my local candidate had to say. I was too scared to go inside so I left.”

The Brighton and Hove Ceasefire Coalition denied her claims and said that “any chants were directed at the meeting, not at her”.

A spokesman for the group said: “In over four months, Tom Gray has made not one public condemnation or even one comment about the greatest international humanitarian and political crisis currently unfolding in Gaza, not even to express sadness for the deaths of nearly 12,000 children.

“Protesters, including many of his potential constituents, wanted to make it totally clear to Mr Gray that local people expect their political representatives to have the moral courage to speak up about what is increasingly being condemned by international organisations, namely Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“Some people did go into the event to make their views known and were encouraged that some inside, including some local councillors and Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle did express support for a full immediate ceasefire, but were very disappointed that Tom Gray appeared to rather not even think about the issue.

“Our local politicians, MPs and councillors should all be aware that local people will not allow the issue of Gaza, Palestine and Israel to disappear as the general election draws near.”

Tom Gray told The Argus that he backs a ceasefire and said: "We desperately need lasting peace for the people of Palestine and Israel within a two-state solution.

"A ceasefire is clearly necessary to achieve that, so I wholeheartedly endorse any and all practical measures to achieve one."