Members of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet will not be punished if they break party ranks by demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, because Labour is a “diverse party”, Peter Kyle has suggested.
The shadow science, innovation and technology minister also rejected claims that Labour was taking Muslim votes for granted, and said the party was not basing its policy on the conflict around what might win votes.
Starmer has backed the Conservative government’s diplomatic push for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to allow aid into Gaza and for people trapped in the bombarded territory to leave.
With at least 12 shadow ministers – including Afzal Khan, Rushanara Ali, Andy Slaughter, Jess Phillips and Florence Eshalomi – defying Starmer’s position, the Labour leadership has resorted to “listening” rather than enforcing discipline.
“It is a strength of the Labour party because we’re probably the most diverse political party in Europe,” Kyle told Sky News. “It is a strength of the Labour party that within our party, we have people who have a lived connection to both sides in this conflict. And they express their views absolutely forthrightly, as they should.”
He added: “Keir has listened to those and looked at the situation on the ground and he has come up with a way forward that meets the challenges being faced by people in Gaza today.”
More frontbenchers spoke out the day after the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, and the Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, joined calls for a ceasefire. Khan has the biggest mandate of any Labour politician in the country.
More than 250 Muslim Labour councillors last week urged Starmer and the party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, to back an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, with his original comments on LBC also prompting resignations from councillors.
The London mayor, who became the first ever Muslim mayor of the capital in 2016, is understood to have warned Starmer on Thursday that he would post a video on social media outlining his support for a ceasefire. Starmer urged him to reconsider overnight, but was ignored.
Highlighting Labour’s unchanged position despite the pressure from senior party figures, Kyle said: “What Keir Starmer has done is listened to all of these people in the party who have a direct connection to what is happening, an a emotional connection to what is happening,” later adding that the leadership would “continue engaging” with rebelling shadow cabinet members.
Kyle said Labour was “in lockstep with the international community” and that was “the only way we will make a difference on the ground”, but refused to explicitly outline whether Labour believed Israel was acting within international law, as he stressed the importance of not jumping to conclusions “in the midst of battle”.
Last week, Starmer and Rayner met more than a dozen Muslim politicians who said the Labour leader’s positioning on the Israel-Hamas conflict was causing distress to many in the party.
One person present said Starmer acknowledged the amount of “work to be done” to win back the trust of Muslim voters. They added that they thought the leadership would continue to adapt their position to fall in line with international leaders, depending on how severe the conflict became.
When asked whether Labour was taking Muslim votes for granted, Kyle said: “We’re not thinking how do we win votes or what votes we will lose at a time when there is war and conflict unfolding … Everybody has the legitimate right in a democratic society as ours … What Hamas did was wrong and we stand on the side of Israel within international law to defend itself.”
