Keir Starmer seeks to head off another Labour rebellion over Gaza ceasefire

The Gaza ceasefire issue has become the biggest rebellion of Keir Starmer’s leadership. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Keir Starmer’s attempt to head off a damaging rebellion over Gaza was hanging by a thread last night, despite bowing to pressure by finally calling for an immediate ceasefire in the region.

Labour explicitly backed an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” for the first time since fighting broke out in October, in a bid to ward off another party split in what is likely to be a tense Commons vote on Wednesday.

The Scottish National party motion calling for an immediate ceasefire has stoked divisions within the Labour party and outside, with several thousand protesters expected to march on Westminster just as the vote is called.

Labour officials believed on Tuesday afternoon that they had successfully persuaded party rebels to vote for their carefully caveated amendment and abstain on the more blunt SNP motion.

However, they believe that if the Commons Speaker chooses the government amendment ahead of the Labour one, it is likely to lead to a rebellion similar in scale to that seen last November, in which 56 Labour MPs sided with the SNP.

A Labour source said: “Everything now rests with the Speaker. Our amendment should be enough to avoid another major rebellion on Gaza, but we’re not sure what MPs will do if it is not even called for a vote.”

Labour’s position on the Middle East crisis has come under intense scrutiny since the war began, with many in the party accusing Starmer of reacting too slowly to events in the region and backing the Israeli government for too long.

Party tensions came to a head last November when the SNP used the king’s speech debate to call for a vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

With Starmer concerned about not wanting to go further than either the British or American governments, his whips urged MPs to back a Labour motion calling instead for a “cessation of fighting”. This was not enough, however, to prevent dozens of MPs, including eight frontbenchers, siding with the SNP in what became the biggest rebellion of his leadership.

Since then, many Labour MPs who remained loyal and abstained on the SNP amendment have been deluged by angry messages from constituents and activists demanding to know why they “voted against a ceasefire”.

The SNP is seeking to reopen those wounds on Wednesday with a similarly worded motion calling once more for an immediate ceasefire.

Once more Labour has published its own text which it wants MPs to back instead of the SNP motion. However, under heavy pressure from senior pro-Palestinian Labour MPs, the party is this time calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.

The 237-word Labour amendment also calls for Israel not to invade the city of Rafah, for aid to be allowed to flow to Gaza, and for international countries to work towards a two-state solution. It stresses, however, that Israel cannot be expected to abide by a ceasefire if Hamas continues to threaten further violence.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, told the BBC on Tuesday: “We have set down a motion calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. That is because the situation now in Gaza is intolerable, with the dramatic loss of life, with so many people facing starvation, and we are very clear that the Rafah offensive now being planned cannot go ahead.

“This is a comprehensive motion, and it’s one that I hope that the whole house can now get behind.”

But in a separate interview on LBC, he hinted the party would not back an unamended SNP motion. “The SNP motion calls for an immediate ceasefire,” he said. “It doesn’t speak to that ceasefire being lasting.”

By Tuesday afternoon, the alternative Labour motion looked to have secured broad agreement even from many of those who rebelled in November.

Clive Betts, one of those Labour rebels, told the BBC’s World at One: “It is a revised and good position. I don’t think anyone can see the horrors of what is happening now in Gaza and not want the fighting to stop and stop immediately. That is what the Labour motion says.”

Hours later, however, the government published its own amendment, which also calls for a ceasefire but only once a long list of preconditions have been met. They include Hamas returning all hostages, that it cedes control in Gaza, that a new Palestinian government is formed and that there is a “credible pathway” to a two-state solution.

The Commons Speaker will choose on Wednesday morning which amendment to call. Government sources insist that parliamentary precedent dictates that it should be theirs, but Labour officials say the Speaker should focus on which ones best allows the public’s views to be aired in the Commons.

Many in the Labour party believe that if the Speaker chooses the government amendment, dozens of Labour MPs will vote instead for the SNP motion, in what would be another bruising rebuff to Starmer’s authority.

One party source said: “This situation is so tense that an attempt to create party unity on it for the first time in months could genuinely be scuppered by obscure parliamentary processes.”

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales called for the fighting to end “as soon as possible” and for more humanitarian support for Gaza.

Prince William issued a statement before carrying out visits to recognise the human suffering caused by conflict in the Middle East and the global rise in antisemitism.

“I remain deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7. Too many have been killed,” he said.

“I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible. There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza. It’s critical that aid gets in and the hostages are released.

“Sometimes it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanent peace is brought home.

“Even in the darkest hour, we must not succumb to the counsel of despair. I continue to cling to the hope that a brighter future can be found and I refuse to give up on that.”

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy responded: “Israelis of course want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible, and that will be possible once the 134 hostages are released, and once the Hamas terror army threatening to repeat the 7 October atrocities is dismantled.

“We appreciate the Prince of Wales’s call for Hamas to free the hostages.

“We also recall with gratitude his statement from 11 October condemning Hamas’s terror attacks and reaffirming Israel’s right of self-defence against them.”