What to expect from Gaza vote after Starmer calls for ‘ceasefire that lasts’
Labour is hoping to avoid another mass rebellion over the issue of a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of a Commons vote this week.
The SNP will table a motion in the Commons on Wednesday which sets out the party’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.
A similar motion tabled in November saw 56 Labour MPs defy the party whip to back it, with eight frontbenchers stepping down to do so, in a major blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
Here’s what to expect from the vote on a Gaza ceasefire:
What has Labour said about a ceasefire in Gaza?
On Sunday, Sir Keir told the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow that he wanted to see a “ceasefire that lasts” in Gaza, insisting that it “must happen now”.
It comes after members at the conference passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Saturday.
Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar, also described the SNP motion due on Wednesday which calls for an immediate ceasefire as “perfectly reasonable”.
Sir Keir has come under increasing pressure since the start of the conflict in Gaza to strengthen his calls for a ceasefire, and his comments on Sunday were seen as a softening of the party’s position.
How has Labour’s position on a ceasefire changed?
Dozens of Labour councillors resigned in October last year after Sir Keir appeared to suggest in an interview with LBC on 11 October, just days after Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel, that Israel had a right to limit essential supplies, including water and electricity, to Gaza.
On 31 October, amid growing pressure from within his party, he gave a speech calling for a ceasefire in Gaza to be implemented once hostages have been freed and Hamas’s power has been broken.
Speaking at the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London, he claimed that an immediate ceasefire would “freeze” the current situation, potentially allowing Hamas to regroup and carry out further terror attacks similar to that which took place on 7 October.
Asked on Saturday whether his party would back the SNP motion, Sir Keir said: “We’ll have to look at the precise wording. But I’m very clear that we all want a ceasefire. The question therefore is how do we get there?”
Will Labour back the ceasefire vote?
Labour has not ruled out backing an SNP-led vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in a sign that the party leadership hopes it can find a way to prevent re-opening deep divides on the issue among MPs.
Mr Lammy, who is in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, declined to say how Labour MPs might vote.
“I haven’t seen the motion. It’s not yet put down,” he told the BBC. “We will scrutinise that motion as is our way in Parliament and we will take it from there.
“But let us be clear, yes, we will have a vote in Parliament this week but it’s not that vote that will bring about a ceasefire, it’s the diplomatic action.”
He also sought to downplay the idea that the party was divided on the issue, adding: “I fully understand that Scottish colleagues want the fighting to stop now, we’ve been saying that for weeks, so we agree with them.
“We want the fighting to stop now. I’m not sure that what’s flying around on Twitter says anything about it being sustainable.
“You can have a ceasefire that lasts for a few days. We want the ceasefire to last and to be permanent, and to move towards the diplomatic solution. It will only be a political solution that brings an end to this. We all want to see an end to the fighting, it must stop.”
In an open letter to MPs ahead of Wednesday’s vote, the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn urged both Tory and Labour colleagues to find the “courage” to back a ceasefire.
He said: “For more than four months, the UK has followed the strategy of equivocation supported by Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. The devastation shows it hasn’t worked. The time for equivocation is over.”
