Preston mosques tell Labour councillors to demand Starmer quit in ceasefire row

Labour councillors in Preston are facing an “unprecedented” call by local mosques for them to publicly demand leader Keir Starmer’s resignation over his decision not to back a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

One local party figure called the request “unrealistic” and “unlikely”, and said it put already under-pressure councillors in a highly difficult position with a “new level of stress”.

The Preston Labour group said in a statement shared with the Lancashire Post they backed a ceasefire and understood the “strong feelings”, but had “limited…capacity to influence national and international decision-making”.

It comes shortly after the leaders of two other Lancashire councils, Burnley and Pendle, issued their own calls for Starmer to quit.

‘No option but to take unprecedented measures’

A document seen by LabourList says that “the mosques of Preston in Lancashire, and indeed the communities that we serve, can no longer tolerate the continued silence of our leaders” over Israeli actions.

It states: “We are left with no option but to take unprecedented measures to ensure that we get an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

“We…demand that all our local Labour councillors commit to signing a joint letter calling for the immediate resignation of the Labour leader Keir Starmer. The name of all the signatories will be shared with the communities we serve.”

It set a deadline of this Friday at 5pm.

‘City councillors are not the foreign secretary’

One local Labour figure told LabourList: “This is quite unprecedented. I understand the intensity of feeling, the deep hurt. But we’re a bit confused.

“Having religious institutions ask for elected leaders to resign is something quite strange.

“It’s unrealistic to expect 31 councillors to ask for the resignation of their elected leader. And as a strategy it doesn’t do anything to get a change of position in the national party.”

They also said the Labour group governing the Lancashire city had already issued a public demand for a ceasefire, at odds with the party’s national position, and written to Starmer and the prime minister.

“It’d be more effective [if mosques were] lobbying Labour MPs nationally. Local councillors really disagree with the national party on this, and they’ll be arguing for a change of position, but their influence is limited.

“City councillors are not the foreign secretary: they deal with community issues.”

The Labour group need to “agree a collective position”, they added, with backing Starmer’s resignation “unlikely”. They said councillors will “continue to engage”, and also focus on tackling Islamophobia and antisemitism.

A statement released later by Preston Labour and reported by the Lancashire Post reads: “We are in active discussion with all our communities in Preston, including our Muslim community, as we understand the strong feelings that exist regarding this ongoing conflict.

‘This is a watershed moment’

One local source claimed some councillors had indicated they would heed the demand to urge Starmer to quit, however.

A Preston City councillor on Lancashire county council, Yousuf Motala, had already publicly urged Starmer to resign when local mosques issued the statement.

One local faith leader also said the situation was “untenable”. They told LabourList: “It’s a watershed moment, an Iraq war moment. When you have a conflict between national and local policy, it does put councillors in a very difficult position.

“But what better way to show they’re not happy than to call for the resignation of the leader? If people don’t call for this, it will be remembered within the community.”

Jeremy Dable, a Jewish representative on the Preston Faith Covenant, said: “Everybody’s upset. The job of everybody who’s a leader isn’t to make things better, as they can’t, but to avoid making them worse to maintain relationships and to maintain cohesion.”

Preston council was not immediately available for comment.