UK LABOUR LEADER Keir Starmer suffered a major rebellion over his stance on the Gaza conflict, losing eight frontbenchers as dozens of his MPs backed a ceasefire.
High-profile shadow minister for domestic violence, Jess Phillips, joined several frontbench colleagues including Yasmin Qureshi, Afzal Khan and Paula Barker in quitting yesterday evening after deciding to support an Scottish National Party (SNP) amendment to the King’s Speech backing a ceasefire.
Four other frontbenchers: Rachel Hopkins, Sarah Owen, Naz Shah and Andy Slaughter, have also left the front bench after breaking the party whip to back the amendment.
Parliamentary private secretaries Dan Carden and Mary Foy joined them in leaving their positions.
MPs voted 293 to 125, majority 168, to reject the SNP’s King’s Speech amendment calling for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
But 56 Labour MPs backed the position, rejecting their party leader’s stance and defying a three-line whip.
Labour MPs had been ordered to abstain on the SNP move and were told instead to back Starmer’s position calling for longer “humanitarian pauses” rather than a ceasefire.
In a statement following the vote, Starmer said he regretted that party colleagues had not backed his position.
“Alongside leaders around the world, I have called throughout for adherence to international law, for humanitarian pauses to allow access for aid, food, water, utilities and medicine, and have expressed our concerns at the scale of civilian casualties.
“Much more needs to be done in this regard to ease the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Gaza.
“And, in addition to addressing the present, every leader has a duty not to go back to a failed strategy of containment and neglect, but to forge a better and more secure future for both Palestinians and Israelis.
“I regret that some colleagues felt unable to support the position tonight. But I wanted to be clear about where I stood, and where I will stand.”
The UN Security Council yesterday approved a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip”.
It came after Israeli troops stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital after encircling the Shifa Hospital for days.
Phillips, a prominent frontbencher, said it was with a “heavy heart” that she was quitting.
— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) November 15, 2023
“I have tried to do everything that I could to make it so that this was not the outcome, but it is with a heavy heart that I will be leaving my post in the shadow Home Office team.
“On this occasion I must vote with my constituents, my head, and my heart which has felt as if it were breaking over the last four weeks with the horror of the situation in Israel and Palestine,” she said in a letter to her party leader.
Some of the MPs had signalled their intention to break with Starmer in the House of Commons debate preceding the vote, after already having called publicly for a ceasefire.
Shah warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe”, while Khan told the chamber that his “constituents have demanded” a ceasefire.
The MP for Manchester Gorton told the Commons: “If we had a ceasefire yesterday 144 Gazan children would still be alive today. Israel has already crossed every red line imaginable and broken international humanitarian laws.
The scale of the rebellion will be a blow to Starmer, who had hoped to avoid further damaging splits within his parliamentary party over the issue.
The party has been riven with internal divisions over Israel’s response to the deadly incursion by Hamas that sparked the conflict.
The leadership has backed the UK Government’s position of pushing for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow aid to reach Palestinians trapped in the bombarded territory but has stopped short of calling for a total cessation of hostilities.
But Starmer’s allies insisted he had little choice but to take a firm line with rebels.
Peter Kyle, the shadow science secretary, said that the party lead had allowed a “very broad debate”.
“But there are key times, if you are the party that seeks to run the country and you want to be the prime minister of our country standing on the international stage, where you have to show that we are a united party that can resolve itself in Parliament and the government,” he told ITV’s Peston programme.
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