Keir Starmer has suspended Andy McDonald MP for remarks he made in his speech to the huge demonstration for Palestinian rights in London on Saturday.

“We won’t rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea, can live in peaceful liberty,” the former Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights and Protections is reported to have said. This was enough to have the Labour whip withdrawn.

James Schneider, who was  Director of Strategic Communications under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, denounced the suspension as “Deranged McCarthyism,” adding, “A call for peaceful liberty for all gets you suspended. Through the looking glass stuff.”

Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP also voiced criticism of the sanction, saying: “I think that’s a complete misinterpretation. When that phrase was generated, it was actually a phrase about how people can live together. But there has to be justice for the Palestinians in that settlement.”

Kate Dove, Momentum Co-Chair, said: “This is an appalling and outrageous intervention. It is an insult to the millions of voters who share the hopes Andy voiced for a peaceful and just settlement in Israel and Palestine. Like Andy, the British public look on with horror at the war crimes perpetrated by Israel in Gaza, and the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians. But instead of siding with the rest of the Labour Party and the public in condemning these crimes, Keir Starmer has joined in with right-wing smears against his own MP for speaking out in solidarity with Palestine. We urge every voice in the labour movement to speak up in one voice and tell Keir Starmer: reinstate Andy McDonald without delay, stop backing war crimes and demand an immediate ceasefire.”

Earlier today The Times was forced to retract its misrepresentation of Andy McDonald’s words. The MP responded to this here.

Former Labour executive director of policy Andrew Fisher agreed that the leadership’s suspension of McDonald was “ridiculous”.

In a separate powerful piece in the i newspaper, Fisher pulls to bits the line peddled by leadership loyalists in the media that “Britain is not in any way involved in the conflict”.

Fisher counters: “But that is really not true. The UK sells millions of pounds worth of arms to Israel every year. Many of the bombs and the planes that deliver them are British-made or made with British manufactured components.

“When the UN condemned potential breaches of international humanitarian law (i.e. war crimes) by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, then shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn called for the suspension of UK arms sales to the Saudis – much to the chagrin of some Labour backbenchers who had accepted Saudi largesse and hospitality. Benn once again sits in Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet, and a repeat of that principled stand could help cool tensions.”

He goes on: “What has made this conflict cut so deep into the Labour Party is that it strikes at the fundamental commitment across the party that believes in universal human rights and international law, equally applied.”

He warns: “Damage is being done with every statement, every tweet, every failure to admit and apologise for mistakes (whether that’s over Starmer’s LBC interview or the visit to the Cardiff mosque). A leadership that looked strong, suddenly looks brittle.”

But “Starmer has a chance to put this right. He could re-unify the party by joining them and the international community – the United Nations secretary-general, the UN General Assembly, aid agencies like Oxfam and Save the Children, human rights groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch – in backing a ceasefire and a political process for peace and justice.”

Fisher concludes: “Keir Starmer said a year ago that the Labour Party should be ‘the political wing of the British people’. Well 76 per cent of the British public is calling for an immediate ceasefire. It’s time to be their political wing.”

Meanwhile, Sheffield Labour Group of Councillors becomes the 21st Labour Council Group to call for an immediate ceasefire.

They join nine Greater Manchester  councils, Leeds, Glasgow, Broxtowe, Brent (35/49), Tower Hamlets, Preston, Welwyn Hatfield, Sutton and Cheam, Kirklees, Leicester and Luton, alongside over 300 individual Labour councillors in a Labour Muslim Network open letter.

Labour & Palestine have also issued a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire. Their full statement reads:

Labour & Palestine is horrified by the escalating violence in Israel and Palestine and the callous response of the UK government. We call on the Labour Party to act to help bring about an immediate ceasefire, as called for by the UN, the TUC and many others.

We are appalled by the loss of life of both Israelis and Palestinians and believe that the targeting and attacking of civilians and the imposition of collective punishments are, as is clear in international law, war crimes that must be condemned by all.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has said this latest outbreak of violence and slaughter of innocent civilians does not take place “in a vacuum”. The war in Gaza did not start on 7 October – it is a direct result of Israel’s illegal and brutal military occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.

The Israeli state has actively supported the building of illegal settlements in the West Bank, arrested and detained thousands – including hundreds of children – demolished homes and stood by while heavily armed illegal settlers viciously attacked Palestinians.

These breaches of Palestinian human rights have been well documented by the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, among others. Yet these acts of violence, intimidation and oppression have been allowed to reach a new high since the extreme right-wing administration of Benjamin Netanyahu took office last year.

The failure of the parties to the Oslo Accords, including the UK, to fulfil the promises made to the Palestinian people of an independent state, have made any route to peace increasingly difficult.

The UK government’s uncritical support for Israel’s illegal actions is completely wrong.

The Labour Party must now lead demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the full application of international law to apply equally to all peoples.

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Image: London demonstration October 28th. c/o Labour Hub.