Labour called on Tuesday for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza as Sir Keir Starmer strove to defuse a potential Commons revolt by his MPs.
The Opposition party introduced its own ceasefire amendment for a vote in Parliament on Wednesday, demanding that both Israel and Hamas stop fighting now, after previously rejecting a timeline.
Sir Keir was forced to respond after the SNP threatened to reopen Labour wounds over the war by introducing a motion demanding an “immediate ceasefire”, after a similar motion by the Scottish nationalists in November.
The Labour leadership expressed confidence that it had seen off any rebellion by tabling the amendment, and urged the SNP to cooperate. “What’s there to object to now?” one ally of Sir Keir said.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is only obliged to put the original SNP motion to a vote, not any amendments, and will announce what language has passed muster on Wednesday afternoon.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn earlier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it was time to end “appeasement” of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel and its “collective punishment” of the people of Gaza, in reprisal for the Hamas attacks of October 7.
He hailed the Labour amendment, tweeting: “Our calls for an immediate ceasefire have been clear and consistent. Through Parliamentary pressure we have inserted a backbone into the Labour Party. Their support for an immediate ceasefire is welcome.”
In November, 10 Labour frontbenchers resigned or were sacked after voting for the SNP motion. But this week, the language from Israel’s US and UK allies in favour of a truce has dramatically hardened, giving Sir Keir more room for manoeuvre.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Our amendment calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, in line with our allies.
“We need the hostages released and returned. We need the fighting to stop now. We need a massive humanitarian aid programme for Gaza. And any military action in Rafah cannot go ahead.
“There needs to be an end to violence on all sides. Israelis have the right to the security that the horror of October 7th cannot happen again.
“We want the fighting to stop now. We also have to be clear on how we prevent the violence starting up again. There will be no lasting peace without a diplomatic process that delivers a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state.”
One Labour MP who defied the leadership in November told the Standard: “I’ll support any motion from any quarter that promotes peace in the region.”
Jess Phillips, who resigned in November as shadow minister on domestic violence, called on Labour and the SNP to unite behind a joint motion.
“The Labour Party wants an immediate ceasefire, the SNP want an immediate ceasefire, why on Earth wouldn’t we work together today to show unity in the face of horror and crisis, and then all vote for the same motion together?” she said at an event in London.
“Hope springs eternal that that will happen, and by hope I mean I doubt there’s any chance, but that’s what I would be seeking to do.”
One SNP source said the party stood by its motion, stressing it was allotted under an “opposition day” debate given to non-ruling parties. The nationalists have been on the back foot against a resurgent Scottish Labour Party, and some in Labour ranks said the Gaza motion was designed to highlighted their party’s divisions.
Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott, who sits as an independent after having the Labour whip withdrawn, accused Sir Keir of “weasel words”.
“It gets Labour MPs under pressure off the hook, but means he can say afterwards his position has not changed,” she tweeted, after the Labour leader previously called only for a “sustainable ceasefire” without saying when one should take effect.
The Commons manoeuvring came with Israel under the strongest US and British pressure yet to suspend its war in Gaza as warnings mounted against any ground offensive in Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter.
The White House opened up a clear breach with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government by circulating its own motion at the UN Security Council, after vetoing previous ones from other countries, calling for a “temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable”.
And on a visit to the Falkland Islands, Lord Cameron said: “We are calling for a stop to the fighting right now, we think that what we need is a pause in the fighting and the hostages to come out and aid to go in.
“That should happen straight away,” the Foreign Secretary added. “That’s what we need to happen rather than an offensive in Rafah.”
Lord Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, said of the US administration’s Security Council resolution: “I think this is the most clear public rift between the US and Israel that I can remember.”
The US motion also rejects demands made by Far-right ministers in the Netanyahu government for Jewish settlements in Gaza and new buffer zones, and further warns that a major Israeli offensive in Rafah “would have serious implications for regional peace and security”.
Lord Ricketts said on the Today programme: “So this, across the piece, is a rejection of Netanyahu’s policy in Gaza set out in a draft resolution.”
However, Mr Netanyahu has vowed to “finish the job” against Hamas after the terror group staged murderous attacks in Israel on October 7.
In the resulting war, around 80 per cent of Gaza’s population has been displaced and a quarter are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.
One in six children in Gaza under the age of two is acutely malnourished, a report from an aid partnership led by the UN children’s agency Unicef said.
The report by the Global Nutrition Cluster said that more than 90 per cent of children under five in Gaza eat two or fewer food groups a day, known as severe food poverty.
A similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases, with 70 per cent experiencing diarrhea in the past two weeks. More than 80 per cent of Gazan homes lack clean and safe water, the report said.
The October 7 attack killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and around 250 were taken hostage. Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists have been holding on to half the hostages, but a quarter of them are feared to be dead.
The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 29,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Lord Cameron said that a pause in the fighting can be translated into a “permanent, sustainable ceasefire”.
“We are going to have to see Hamas leaders leave Gaza, we are going to have to see the machinery of terrorism taken down, we are going to have to see a proper horizon for the Palestinian people, a new Palestinian government,” he said.
“But let’s make that happen, let’s have the stop to the fighting now, have that hostage release and then build on it from here.”
