Israel and Gaza threaten to create a fracture in the Labor Party and blow up opposition leader Keir Starmer's strategy in the midst of the countdown to the 2024 UK general election. More than 40 Labor MPs and 250 Muslim councilors have written to Starmer this week criticizing his response to the conflict and calling for an “immediate ceasefire.”
The Labor leader has been harshly criticized in recent hours for apparently justifying the cutting of water and electricity to Gaza as part of Israel's right to self-defense. Starmer was forced to qualify his statements to the LBC radio station, widely disseminated on social networks, and assure that they cannot be interpreted as support “for the siege of two million Palestinians.”
The Labor leader recalled that since the beginning of the conflict he has stressed that Israel “must respect international laws”. On his Twitter/X account he insisted on Wednesday “the need for humanitarian aid, electricity and water to urgently reach Gaza.”
But the rebellion in their ranks is growing, with threats of up to four resignations in their own shadow cabinet, starting with the head of equality Yasmin Qureshi, daughter of Pakistani immigrants.. Qureshi apparently broke party discipline when he spoke in the House of Commons on Wednesday, defying his own leader and calling for “a ceasefire in Gaza, where people are being subjected to collective punishment for crimes they have not committed.”
Other deputies on his team, such as Rachel Hopkins and Sarah Owen, have also distanced themselves from their leader due to his position on the conflict, according to The Times.. “There is great concern because if there is a resignation in the shadow government, everyone else will suffer great pressure,” revealed sources from the Labor Party, who assured that internal divisions are as strong as those that arose before the Iraq war. during the Blair era.
The notorious resignation of Amna Abdullatif, Manchester's first Muslim councillor, led to the resignation last week of around twenty local politicians, who condemned Keir Starmer's unilateral side taking over Israel since the conflict began.
Zero tolerance for anti-Semitism
Starmer, who in his three years as leader imposed zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, tried to appease the anger of the far left wing and Muslim representatives with a visit to a mosque in Wales last Sunday that ended in a fiasco. On Wednesday, together with the number two, Angela Rayner, he again attempted a rapprochement with a meeting with a dozen Muslim Labor politicians that also did not achieve its purpose.
Labor maintains an average lead of 20 points over Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party, but Starmer's controversial response and the presence of local Labor politicians at recent pro-Palestine demonstrations in British cities (including former party leader Jeremy Corbyn ) threaten to reopen old fissures and lead to a decline in popular support for Labour.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has, meanwhile, managed to take advantage of his tour of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where he met with the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.. Sunak was in favor in Parliament of a “pause” in the Israeli offensive to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but he has not expressly called for a “ceasefire” and has unequivocally defended “Israel's right to self defense”.
Despite the presence of prominent Muslims among its members, the Conservative Party has mostly closed ranks with Israel, despite critical voices such as that of Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who has directly accused Sunak of having joined a wave in the media to “silence , stereotyping and stigmatizing British Muslims.