Starmer, Labour and Gaza

The significance of the rebellion by a quarter of Labour MPs against the leadership line is that it is the first warning to Sir Keir Starmer of what government is like. His Praetorian Guard (the Shadow Cabinet) stayed loyal — but that’s what Praetorian guards are supposed to do.

It was the PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) of Labour who fired a warning shot that neither they nor a wider public can be ignored. The sad but plain fact is that, under the extreme and corrupt leadership of Bibi Netanyahu, Israel has lost the support of many in the world’s democracies. Many have been alienated by his contemptuous refusal to make peace with any element of Palestine’s varied communities that has a shred of self respect.

The giant, mainly peaceful protest marches in London and elsewhere in the democratic world reflect that. Yes, they are organised by militant pro-Palestinian groups. Palestine has become the number 1 cause of the global liberal left, with a fair degree of support amongst “Camel Corps” Tory MPs.

Labour MPs have come under pressure from the four million-plus Muslim British citizens. They may be horrified at the brutality of the Hamas massacre of Israelis and other Jews on 7 October, but they are equally horrified at the relentless killing of children and women — as well as Hamas militants — in Netanyahu’s onslaught on Gaza.

During the Iraq war, up to 25,000 emails a day generated by Islamist political groups could land in an MP’s in-box. Veteran MPs know to ignore this mobbing by email. But for recently elected ones – and the Labour front bench is full of relatively new arrivals in the Commons – it is uncomfortable.

A tactic Islamist activists use is to threaten to put up a Muslim candidate against a sitting MP. He or she won’t win but can siphon off Labour votes to hand over the seat to a different party. With luck the present Gaza crisis will have died down by the time of the next election, but this tactic adds to pressure on sitting Labour MPs.

Starmer is right to stick with the leaders of the democratic world in avoiding support for Hamas. This includes Vladimir Putin’s campaign for a ceasefire that would allow Hamas to rearm, regroup and prepare its next Jew-killing onslaught. But the semantic difference between “humanitarian pauses” and “ceasefires” to evacuate women and children — as President Macron called for on the BBC last week — is symbolic, not real.

There is also low rent politics at play here. Following the King’s Speech, there is a week of debates in which MPs can raise anything the Government is doing. It is possible to put down an amendment, either as an individual MPs or a party – though whether they are called to be debated and voted is a matter for the Speaker.

The SNP, whose beleaguered Muslim leader, Humza Yousaf, has been making much of his family members in Gaza, tabled a motion calling for a ceasefire. The SNP and other small parties tabled similar motion during the Iraq conflict. Labour whips just ignored them.

Other than Pat McFadden, hardly any leading Labour politicians have served in government before. And so Sir Keir rose to the SNP bait. He could have told MPs to abstain and ignore those who wanted to satisfy local groups with a vote for the meaningless word “cease-fire.”

Instead Labour tabled its own motion which endorsed the new stronger language of Andrew Mitchell, the real Foreign Secretary, while Lord Cameron jets off to do Boris Johnson- or Liz Truss-style photo calls with the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

Starmer is in line with the US, Europe and most world democracies. But Tory whips decided to embarrass him by voting down the Labour motion, even though it was in line with Sunak’s policy. This meant the SNP “ceasefire” motion had to be voted on. Labour MPs who had promised constituents a strong line on Gaza had little choice but to join the SNP in the lobby.

Labour might have spotted the trap, but Tony Blair faced a major rebellion in the first months of his 1997 government and more Labour MPs voter against him over Iraq than  Starmer faced on Gaza.

No member of the shadow cabinet rebelled. Labour MPs loyal to Starmer will feel let down by the rebels, but this passes quickly. Some who are now on the back benches are of high talent, but not all. The good ones will be back.

Luckily for Sir Keir, at the same time as the Labour rebellion Rishi Sunak launched his attack on the Supreme Court, claiming the autocratic kleptocracy of Rwanda was  a model human rights democracy. Harry Cole demolished this idiocy in the Sun, the champion media platform for anti-immigration politics.

Sir Keir has a shot across his bows and maybe needs better advice on Parliamentary management— a dark but essential art in democratic politics.

Meanwhile the idea anyone in Israel or the Muslim Brotherhood or its Jew killing Hamas affiliate cares about Westminster politics is laughable. Britain is only a player in the Middle East as part of a bigger team. The SNP’s gesture politics is part of the problem, as are the tactical games played by Tory whips.

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