Israel-Palestine: Has Starmer done enough to stem party unrest?

Starmer (again) clarifies stance on Gaza as backlash continues

Keir Starmer last night issued another statement on the conflict between Israel and Hamas – following a day of heightened pressure on the Labour leader. Starmer said the amount of aid reaching Gaza is “completely insufficient” and all parties need to ensure it reaches those in need, adding that Labour supports “humanitarian pauses” as proposed by US secretary of state Anthony Blinken. He declared that, “in the long term, there can only be a political solution to this crisis” and called for talks on a two-state solution to be restarted.

Wednesday kicked off with more than 150 Muslim Labour councillors signing a joint letter to Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner urging an immediate ceasefire. Another 100 have signed it since. At Prime Minister’s Questions, shadow minister Yasmin Qureshi broke with the party line by seemingly calling for a ceasefire, though a party spokesman denied she had explicitly done so. The Labour leader met with Muslim MPs and peers in the afternoon for talks, which one MP present described to LabourList as “useful” and “robust”, saying Starmer was “in listening mode”. Another MP called it “constructive”, and suggested the group had been told they could meet the leadership whenever they wished. Another source denied this positive characterisation however, though they were not present. They said one MP described the meeting as “tokenistic”.

Meanwhile a Leicester councillor LabourList spoke to said he had “never seen the bottom fall out of the Labour vote so fast”, among “predominantly very loyal” local Muslim voters. He even claimed the anger was “worse” than over Iraq. Commenting after Starmer’s new statement, the councillor added: “Moving in the right direction, but taking so long to get there other parties have occupied that ground first. Unless he’s calling for a ceasefire, this statement just won’t cut through images coming out of Gaza.” But one MP said while his voters were “passionate” about the issue, other issues like the cost of living, health and education would still affect their vote too. With rumours swirling about frontbenchers being on resignation watch, expect this story to keep on rolling.

Has Labour ‘gagged’ CLPs over Israel-Gaza?

There seems some confusion over whether Constituency Labour Parties can or can’t debate the conflict. A party spokesman told journalists yesterday debate was allowed, but a memo reveals there are restrictions, one official’s comments on a dropped London motion we’ve seen show how broadly they’re being applied, and Scottish Labour seems to have an outright ban. Our editor Tom Belger has had a go at unpicking and explaining the rules here.

In other Labour news…

IN MEMORIAM: Tributes have been paid following the death of Labour peer Murray Elder aged 73. Elder helped draft plans for the Scottish parliament and worked as an adviser to John Smith and Donald Dewar. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a schoolfriend of Elder’s, remembers him in a piece for LabourList (BBC News).

BY-ELECTION STATIONS (AGAIN): MPs have voted in parliament to uphold sanctions against MP Peter Bone – meaning the MP for Wellingborough will be suspended from the Commons for six weeks, which will trigger a recall petition and potentially another by-election (PoliticsHome).

BABY FORMULA CRISIS: Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has pledged that a Labour government would intervene to alleviate the “heartbreaking” baby formula pricing crisis, telling Sky News that he would move to abolish “outdated” restrictions (Sky News).

SELECTIONS: Applications to be the Labour candidate for a bunch of seats close at midday today, including Croydon East, East Worthing and Shoreham and Southend East and Rochford (Labour Party website).

OPEN LABOUR ELECTIONS: Open Labour has announced the results of elections to its national committee (X).

LABOUR OVERSEAS: Did you know there’s a Brussels Labour branch, keeping the flag flying there and working with sister parties? It’s been around longer than Britain was in the EU, and celebrated its 50th birthday last night. Journalist Will Hutton was among those there, plus Stella Creasy and Neil Kinnock sent video messages (X).

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