Seven days after a massive demonstration in support of Palestinian rights last week, protesters again took to the streets of several UK cities today to demonstrate against the siege of Gaza. In London, over 100,000 marched in the rain in support of Palestinian freedom.

Within the Labour Party, the pressure on Keir Starmer to modify his position on the war on Gaza continues to mount, as leading figures continue to leave the Party. In Oxford, six city Councillors resigned their membership yesterday, joining two who quit earlier this week, and adding to those elsewhere who have made the same stand.  

In Scotland, nine members of a local Labour Party have resigned their positions over the Party’s stance on Gaza. Constituency officers in Glasgow Kelvin, including Baroness Pauline Bryan, resigned en masse after calling for the “cessation of Israeli military action”.

The CLP officers said their resignations followed the submission of a motion urging Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to call for a cessation of Israeli military action, the establishment of a humanitarian corridor and the release of hostages.

They said in a statement: “We have been informed by the general secretary and the Scottish general secretary that any motions relating to the situation in Israel and Gaza are out of order for all CLPs. It seems preposterous to us that a local political party cannot have a substantive discussion on contemporary events which are commanding the attention of the entire world.”

Their statement continued: “We refuse to be part of a party machinery which stifles democracy. Accordingly, we hereby resign our positions on the executive committee of Glasgow Kelvin CLP.”

In a separate initiative, Peter Soulsby, the Mayor of Leicester, has written to the Labour leader, complaining that the impression has been given of “ignoring the decades of injustice and the oppression of Palestinians and the violations of their human rights.”

Soulsby, who himself has visited the Occupied Territories on the West Bank, writes of his discussion with Muslim Labour Councillors, who represent communities which “perceive the Party as currently lacking sympathy for the plight of Palestinians.”

The letter says that in Leicester and elsewhere, many members, supporters and the wider community want Starmer and the Party to call for immediate relief for Gaza, a proportionate Israeli response that conforms to international law and avoids collective punishment and “a long term just settlement that respects the rights of the Palestinian people as well as those of Israel.”

Earlier this year, 19 sitting Labour Councillors in Leicester, the majority of them from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, were deselected ahead of May’s local elections.  In the event, completely against the national trend, Labour lost 22 council seats.

Meanwhile, over 60 MPs have now signed Socialist Campaign Group Secretary Richard Burgon MP’s EDM calling for an immediate ceasefire in the region.  This stance has a clear majority in public opinion, according to a new YouGov poll, yet is still opposed by both main party leaderships. Nearly 90% of Labour voters want an immediate cessation to hostilities.

New polling shows there is majority support in the US as well for a ceasefire and de-escalation, backed by two out of three Americans, including a majority of Republicans.

Momentum estimate that around 20% of Labour MPs have backed an immediate ceasefire, and nearly half of all backbenchers. This includes non-Campaign Group figures like Liam Byrne, Sarah Champion, Clive Betts, Debbie Abrahams, Tahir Ali, Afzal Gorton and Emma Lewell-Buck.

Labour Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin has joined calls for an immediate ceasefire. Rokhsana Fiaz, Labour Mayor of Newham, has also issued a strongly worded statement calling for international human rights law and international humanitarian law to prevail.

One of the strongest statements comes from Zarah Sultana MP. In a contribution entitled “Why Labour must back an immediate ceasefire”, she writes: “War crimes have been given the green-light by political leaders in the UK and beyond. Even after an Israeli defence official promised to turn Gaza ‘into a city of tents’, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has refused to condemn Israel for its flagrant violations of international law… At the UN security council on Wednesday, to our shame the UK refused to support a resolution calling for Israel to allow humanitarian corridors into Gaza and a pause in fighting.”

Labour’s headquarters in London was the focus of protests yesterday, amid the Party’s deepening crisis on its stance. The protesters, organised by London Palestine Action, held banners saying, “Blood on your hands” and “End the occupation”.

Yesterday too, Keir Starmer rowed back from his earlier support for Israel’s ‘right’ to withhold power and water from Palestinian civilians, saying: “I was saying Israel had the right to self-defence… I was not saying Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.”

The Labour Muslim Network had earlier demanded an apology from Starmer for his comments, and a crisis meeting between the Shadow Foreign Secretary and Labour Council leaders had led to some modification in the leadership’s messaging on the conflict.

Meanwhile, UK trade unionists are responding to an urgent call for solidarity issued by Palestinian trade unions, demanding that Britain ends its military and political support for Israel’s actions. The statement has resonated particularly within the National Education Union, the University and College Union and Unison, with many national executive members from these unions endorsing it.

Image: c/o Labour Hub