Peter Mandelson described the push from senior Labour figures for Keir Starmer to back a ceasefire in Gaza as “ridiculous” – insisting that “we have to defeat cold blooded murderers”.
The New Labour architect urged Sir Keir to ignore the rebellion in his own party, and compared Israel’s war against Hamas to the UK’s fight against the IRA in the 1980s and 1990s.
“This is cold blooded murder that has been visited on the Israeli people,” Lord Mandelson told the How to Win an Election podcast.
“And for them just to sort of do nothing and not to take the fight to Hamas, to stop them doing this again … would be ridiculous,” he added.
The Labour grandee went on: “That’s what we had to do in Northern Ireland during the seventies and the eighties. And yes, we did disable the Provisional IRA. We did defeat them militarily, and then we drove them to a position where they had no alternative but to turn to politics and to negotiate a peace agreement.”
“Now, that’s not the precise circumstances that we’re facing in Israel or Gaza, obviously not. But … in due course, we will turn to politics, we will turn to negotiation. But that time is a long way off. And in the meantime, we have to defeat cold blooded murderers.”
Lord Mandelson dismissed the growing pressure on Sir Keir to change stance as a backlash from “a number of Momentum campaign organisation councillors”.
However, 15 of Mr Starmer’s own frontbenchers have backed a ceasefire. Some 59 MPs have openly called for one, while more than 330 Labour councillors have written to the Labour leader demanding a shift in position.
Sir Keir resisted calls for a ceasefire in Gaza with a speech at Chatham House on Wednesday – arguing that the terrorist group Hamas would be “emboldened” by such as move.
Peter Mandelson has urged Starmer to resist Labour rebels— (Getty Images)
The Labour leader appeared to warn his shadow cabinet not to join the rebellion on the issue – insisting that he took collective responsibility “extremely seriously”.
He said he understood the desire for a ceasefire, but insisted that it was not the “correct position” at the moment.
But frontbencher Alex Cunningham, shadow courts minister, called for an “immediate” halt to the fighting less than an hour before Sir Keir delivered his speech.
And Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar added the pressure by saying comments made by Sir Keir had caused hurt to Muslims and “any peace-loving citizen”.
Sir Keir upset many in the party by appearing to say in a LBC Radio interview that Israel had the “right” to cut off water and energy to Gaza. He clarified his views 10 days later, insisting: “I was not saying that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.”
Amnesty International also weighed in on the row – accusing Sir Keir of failing to show “the clear and principled leadership that this decades-old crisis needs”.
Sir Keir has called for short “humanitarian” pauses in the fighting – as distinct from a ceasefire – in a bid to allow aid into Gaza and hostages out while allowing Israel to continue its fight against Hamas.
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden has said Israel is fighting “a just war” in Gaza he rejected calls for a ceasefire in the conflict. Mr Dowden said Israel’s air strikes on a refugee camp – which Israel said had targeted a Hamas commander – are part of the “terrible nature” of the conflict.
It comes as foreign secretary James Cleverly said the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is “likely” to open on Wednesday to allow foreign nationals out.
