For the last few weeks, Keir Starmer has been trying to avoid a confrontation with his party over Gaza. With dozens of MPs preparing to rebel and vote for the Scottish National party’s amendment calling for a ceasefire in the region, the Labour leader and his top team held a series of difficult meetings as they tried to thrash out a compromise.
The rebels suggested Labour submitted an amendment of their own, which Starmer agreed to. But they were also desperate for him to use the word “ceasefire”, and on that point he refused to budge.
Some in Labour hoped Starmer’s preferred wording – “a cessation of hostilities” – would be enough to allow MPs to tell constituents they had in effect voted for a ceasefire. But dozens of MPs disagreed, pointing out the word itself was crucial, given it had become a rallying cry for the global pro-Palestinian movement.
As Starmer looks for frontbench replacements from among the 50 or so backbenchers who did not vote with the SNP on Wednesday, he might reflect on how he came to be so bruised by a fight he did not want.
“There were plenty of times when Starmer could have got himself out of this,” said one party source. “He could have sounded more sympathetic to Palestinian suffering earlier on. He could have avoided saying that Israel had the right to block power and water from the Gaza strip. He could have accepted that his wording was tantamount to calling for a ceasefire, and just used the word.”
One senior MP who quit yesterday “remained proud” of the Labour party but questioned Starmer’s leadership. “Wednesday was a huge moment in our party [under Starmer]. Has the leadership listened and taken account of what we had to say? Leading is not ignoring. If we’re a broad and diverse party, as a leader you take stock of all of those views and find a way through, you don’t ignore.”
Since the first resignation last week, the deputy labour leader, Angela Rayner, has lost four frontbenchers from her team – Imran Hussain, Paula Barker, Sarah Owen and Mary Foy. Party insiders have questioned whether Rayner had actually tried to stop the rebels from calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Those present in meetings with her and Starmer to discuss the party’s position on the crisis, with Labour Muslim MPs, noted Rayner had been more “quiet than usual”. One said: “She is very much leaving the weight on Starmer’s shoulders, constantly repeating ‘Keir is doing his best’. Not ‘we’ as the leadership or the party.”
The morning after the wave of resignations, Rayner tweeted: “We all want the violence to end. I understand and respect those calling for a ceasefire now and I’m deeply sorry to have lost valued colleagues from the frontbench.”
Sources told the Guardian the leadership was considering making whips take on the shadow ministerial roles no longer covered, or the shadow secretaries of state having to incorporate the roles. One said: “Yvette is doing an amazing job in the shadow home affairs brief. She is across everything. Did she really need an extra pair of hands with crime reduction?”
The rebellion on Wednesday has emboldened the once fearful leftwing. Insiders, not restricted to those who identify with the socialist campaign group caucus, believe they have succeeded, since 76 Labour MPs have in some way shape or form publicly called for an immediate ceasefire.
Some insiders who had been helping the potential rebels manage pressure from their constituents claimed they had decided not to quit now, in order to leave room for manoeuvre in what is a very fast-moving situation in the Middle East. “Make no mistake those frontbenchers are watching. I’m sure the leadership know that,” a senior Labour source said.
