Starmer uses Israel-Palestine speech to reclaim agenda amid tensions over McDonald

Starmer’s big moment

Good morning. It can feel a little parochial and cold reporting only on events in Israel and Palestine through the lense of Labour politics. But many top global outlets are reporting properly on events on the ground, including the “large” clashes between Israeli and Hamas forces overnight. Whereas covering all things Labour are what we’re for, so we’ll stay in our lane. Sending thoughts and prayers to those affected can feel like a token gesture too, but we send them all the same.

This morning Keir Starmer is attempting to take back control of the narrative on Labour’s response to the conflict, underlining and perhaps updating the Labour stance, again, in a speech . He will “reflect on his work on human rights and in Northern Ireland”, according to party sources, arguing we need a “complete renewal of a political process to pursue a long and lasting peaceful settlement for a two-state solution”. And he’ll say that he “fully understands” calls for a ceasefire as “all of us want the violence to end”, but crucially he’ll argue a permanent one would leave Hamas able to repeat its attack – “risking more violence, more misery, and more suffering for Israelis and Palestinians”. He’s speaking from around 10.30am; I’d hazard a guess it’ll be broadcast live on Sky or BBC News.

Why Andy McDonald was suspended

Other Labour news over the conflict continues to underline party divides, however, though Tory fractures are now also on show as a pro-ceasefire minister was sacked. We’re now running a rolling list of frontbench and backbenchers breaking ranks to back a ceasefire here.

Labour MP Andy McDonald has been suspended pending an investigation after he told a rally about Israelis and Palestinians “between the river and the sea” living in “peaceful liberty”. The party called his comments “deeply offensive” amid rising antisemitism. McDonald this morning condemned “baseless and extremely harmful” claims against him, saying his words “should not be construed in any other way than they were intended”.

The suspension has prompted anger from Labour Muslim Network (“obscene”), former shadow chancellor John McDonnell (“nonsensical”) and campaign group Momentum’s Kate Dove (“opportunistic”). But, as the American Jewish Committee notes, the phrase “from the river to the sea” is often used as a “catch-all phrase symbolising Palestinian control over the entire territory of Israel”, effectively “erasing” the Israeli state. For the AJC, “suggesting that the Jews alone do not have the right to self-determination is antisemitic”.

Black History Month: Lessons from the US

We’re delighted to have the Welsh government’s economy minister Vaughan Gething writing for us here, on how visiting Alabama recently to commemorate an historic racist killing underlined for him why “social justice…cannot be won without economic justice”. He explains how Welsh government’s anti-racist plan includes not just ensuring communities are represented in classrooms and street names, but “finding new ways to support Black entrepreneurs”. Elsewhere, columnist Dr George Dibb delves into history for us too in this must-read piece, arguing we look too much to 1997 when 1964 – and should learn lessons from the trade-offs Wilson faced between ambitions for growth and maintaining credibility with the markets.

In other Labour news…

STARMER’S WOBBLE: Net approval for Starmer has fallen by twelve percentage points and is now negative in a Deltapoll survey, though net approval has fallen by eight percentage points. So the gap narrows but it remains a chasm at 25pps (Deltapoll).

SARWAR’S VISION: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is expected to outline his party’s plans to transform Scotland into a “manufacturing powerhouse” in Fifeon Tuesday (Independent).

HACKNEY TEST: Labour faces that rare thing – a mayoral by-election – in Hackney, east London, next week. Candidate Caroline Woodley has done a wide-ranging interview, highlighting her focus on children with special educational needs, her “shock” at ex-councillor Tom Dewey’s crimes (which triggered the ex-mayor’s resignation), hopes of avoiding Tory austerity and getting a Starmer housebuilding drive, and  many Jewish and Muslim voters’ “upset” over events in Israel and Gaza (Hackney Citizen).

WELSH WOMEN: Wales’s government has outlined plans to redefine women so that trans women are included. A draft of the Welsh government’s Gender Quotas Bill…proposes plans for a gender-balanced Senedd by having set equal quotas for male and female political candidates (Pink News).