The leader of Burnley Borough Council and ten other Councillors have resigned from the Labour Party in protest at Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza war. Afrasiab Anwar was among those who called for the Labour leader to quit last week over his rejection of a ceasefire.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he argued that it wan not just Muslim communities but the entire Party grassroots that was being ignored by Starmer’s obdurate refusal to support a ceasefire. This assessment was underlined by the Councillors’ resignation statement which says that Stamer “does not value the voice of the grassroots of the party.”
“After exhausting every available option, we have arrived to the conclusion that the current party stance on Palestine does not align with the values we hold dear,” the Councillors say.
As a result of the resignations, Labour has lost control of Burnley Council. Earlier in the conflict, it lost control of Oxford as a result of resignations. Nearly 50 Councillors have quit the Party over the issue of Palestine.
25 Labour councils or Labour groups have backed a ceasefire, as more continue to speak out against the leadership’s line. The latest include the Nottingham Labour Group of Councillors who have written to Keir Starmer putting their view that “the Labour Party should call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”
The Preston Labour Group of Councillors has also called for a ceasefire , as have Newham Labour Councillors and Mayor in London. They are joined by Worthing Labour Group.
Labour frontbencher Matt Western, a shadow education minister, has become the eighteenth Labour frontbencher to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The fact that Starmer is unable to take any action against these frontbench rebels, who in theory are bound by Shadow Cabinet collective responsibility, underlines the Party leader’s extreme vulnerability and weakness on this critical issue.
Britain’s largest trade union Unite has also called for an immediate ceasefire.
Meanwhile former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP has written a fierce Guardian op-ed condemning Labour’s leadership for its lack of moral compass. He has also sent a message to the campaign group Labour & Palestine which we reproduce below:
The degeneration of the Tories under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – corrupt, incompetent and irrelevant – looks increasingly certain to deliver an electoral victory for Labour. So, the question now is whether Labour is capable of effective government – not just in managing the day-to-day administration, but in responding to potentially world-changing events that require moral judgments and fundamental political choices.
I have therefore written for the Guardian here on how Gaza has been the most significant test to date of whether Labour is fit to govern, which you can also see on X here and Facebook here.
As the bombs rain down on Gaza, we have wept as we witnessed on our television screens the heartbreaking scenes of children and entire families being killed. More than 3,700 Palestinian children have been killed in the first 28 days of the conflict, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Yet the recitation of ineffective calls for Israel to abide by international law when the indiscriminate effects of its bombing are self-evident calls into question the moral judgments being made at the centre of the Labour administration.
The same question is being asked about the decision to shelter behind the US’s call for a pause in the bombing and invasion, rather than a ceasefire. When the loss of life has reached more than 9,000 people, how can we morally even consider the proposal that, after a short break in combat, we support the return to the inevitable mass killing of civilians and more children that will ensue from the street-by-street attack on Gaza City?
If there is to be a pause, I would suggest it should be a very brief pause within the Labour Party to assess the moral basis upon which decisions are being taken.
For these reasons and many more, please keep campaigning for a ceasefire and for Labour to back this call.
Yours,
John McDonnell MP via Labour & Palestine.
As the casualties in Gaza mount to an estimated 10,000, Keir Starmer still refuses to set any red lines on Israel’s conduct, whether it be over collective punishment, the use of white phosphorus or anything else. His call for a ‘humanitarian pause’ in the fighting is highly unlikely to be work, as Oxfam explain here.
—
EVENT: Why Labour should join calls for a #CeasefireNow
Online, Wednesday 8th November, 18.30 – Register here // Share here // RT here
With: John McDonnell MP // Beth Winter MP // Maryam Eslamdoust, TSSA General Secretary // Nabeela Mowlana, Young Labour Chair // Mish Rahman, Labour NEC // Jess Barnard, Labour NEC & more tba.
Hosted by Labour & Palestine. Kindly streamed by Arise – A Festival of Left Ideas.
Free event but donations essential to covering event costs.
REMINDER FROM LABOUR & PALESTINE: Call on Labour’s leadership to back a ceasefire
Thousands signed this petition calling on Labour’s leadership to back an immediate ceasefire in Israel & Palestine within minutes of it going live, & thousands more are now supporting.
Now, we need to get tens of thousands of people to back this petition and keep the pressure growing on Labour’s leadership to back a ceasefire. Take 30 seconds now to amplify the call:
Image: Trafalgar Square, London, November 4th. c/o Labour Hub.
Labour Hub 