Labour frontbenchers rebelling against Sir Keir Starmer’s position on Israel won’t be sacked despite publicly defying their leader, a shadow minister suggested today.
Peter Kyle, the shadow science secretary, claimed party bosses would ‘continue engaging’ with a growing number of rebels as he signalled they won’t be disciplined.
Labour has been plunged into turmoil over its response to Israel’s war on Hamas following the terror group’s attacks on 7 October.
Sir Keir has called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow for aid to be delivered to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, a stance that has also been taken by the both the Government and the US.
Yet the Labour leader has also continued to back Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the terror atrocities.
He is now facing open defiance from senior party figures who are demanding a complete ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing open defiance from senior Labour figures who are demanding a complete ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
Peter Kyle, the shadow science secretary, claimed party bosses would ‘continue engaging’ with a growing number of rebels as he signalled they won’t be disciplined
A host of shadow ministers – including Afzal Khan and Sarah Owen – have broken ranks with Sir Keir in recent days to voice their support for a ceasefire in Gaza
A host of shadow ministers have broken ranks with Sir Keir in recent days to voice their support for a ceasefire in Gaza.
They include Naz Shah, Paula Barker, Afzal Khan, Rachel Hopkins, Jess Phillips and Sarah Owen.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, London mayor Sadiq Khan, and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar are also calling for a ceasefire, while a slew of local councillors have quit Labour in protest at Sir Keir’s stance.
Asked if those speaking against Sir Keir should be sacked, Mr Kyle held up his hands to signal he didn’t know.
But he also suggested action was unlikely to be taken by Labour’s leadership against the rebels.
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: ‘Well look, what we are going to do, I suspect, is continue engaging with them.’
Asked about the fractious debate within Labour, Mr Kyle added: ‘I think the fact that we have a vigorous debate within our party, as we are doing as a country, and as we are doing actually as a globe right now, reflects a strength.
‘Because we have a leader that has channelled that and turned it into a policy that is in step with all of our international partners.’
The shadow minister also appeared to suggest the difference between calling for a humanitarian pause and a complete ceasefire was ‘dancing on the head of a pin’.
‘People are calling for a ceasefire, we are calling for a pause,’ he said. ‘We can dance on the head of a pin about the nature of a ceasefire.’
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Kyle had earlier suggested Labour was not thinking about whether it will lose or win the support of different groups of voters with its stance on the Middle East conflict.
He was asked on the channel’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme whether Labour was attempting to win back Jewish voters after the party’s antisemitism crisis, while at the same time taking Muslim voters for granted.
Mr Kyle replied: ‘We are not thinking “how do we win votes?” or what votes we will lose at a time when there is war and conflict unfolding before us, and there are human tragedies of a scale we have not seen for a very long time.
‘There are two truths here that are unfolding. The first is that everybody has the legitimate right in a democratic society, as ours is, to advocate for two sovereign solutions within the area, the territory we are talking about.
‘There is also a right and a wrong. What Hamas did was wrong and we stand on the side of Israel, within international law, to defend itself.
‘These two things can happen if we get it right.’