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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jordan King

Sir Keir Starmer may put question of Labour’s position on Israel-Gaza conflict to vote

Sir Keir Starmer is considering submitting a motion for his party to vote on Labour's position on the conflict in Gaza, it has been reported.

The opposition is seemingly divided, with dozens of Labour MPs defying Sir Keir and joining the growing calls for a ceasefire.

Sir Keir has so far argued that a ceasefire would only serve Hamas. But the Scottish National Party (SNP) is set to vote on the issue on Wednesday and there are fears Labour frontbenchers will resign so they can support the motion.

Labour are therefore preparing instead to submit their own motion to maintain party unity, the BBC reported.

"It's better to give the party a position to unify behind, rather than asking them to sit on their hands during the SNP vote," a source said.

Another source said the motion will likely use the following words: “A temporary cessation of violence”.

On Tuesday, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that short pauses in the conflict were "clearly not enough" to alleviate suffering in Gaza, as he pressed for "a full, comprehensive and immediate humanitarian pause in fighting".

Mr Lammy also made an apparent reference to former Labour leader Mr Corbyn's appearance on Piers Morgan's Talk TV show on Monday night where he refused to answer whether Hamas is a terrorist group.

"I'd like to register my shock not every member of this House can say this truth: Hamas are terrorists," the shadow foreign secretary said.

Elsewhere in the debate, Labour shadow minister Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi appeared to suggest that humanitarian pauses alone would not address a "grave humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Gaza", describing them as only a "first step".

Mr Dhesi, who serves as a shadow Treasury minister, was speaking from the back benches when he said: "The damage to water pipelines, sewage pipes, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure needs to be urgently rebuilt. That, I think, will require a much longer negotiated ceasefire from both sides and a release of all hostages."

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