Eight Labour frontbenchers including Jess Phillips have resigned as Keir Starmer was hit by a major rebellion over a vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. Overall, 56 Labour MPs voted for an amendment to the king’s speech brought by the Scottish National party, a major blow to the Labour leader’s attempts to keep unity over the Israel-Hamas war. Labour officials had said in advance that any frontbencher doing so would be sacked for backing the amendment, which called explicitly for a ceasefire. Phillips, Afzal Khan, Yasmin Qureshi and Paula Barker quit their frontbench roles on Wednesday night after voting for the amendment and defying the whip. Rachel Hopkins, Sarah Owen, Naz Shah, and Andy Slaughter were sacked by the Labour leader after the vote. Mary Foy, Angela Rayner’s parliamentary private secretary (PPS), and Dan Carden, another PPS, have also left the frontbench. As votes closed, Starmer said he regretted that party colleagues had not backed his position. “Alongside leaders around the world, I have called throughout for adherence to international law, for humanitarian pauses to allow access for aid, food, water, utilities and medicine, and have expressed our concerns at the scale of civilian casualties.” He added: “Leadership is about doing the right thing. That is the least the public deserves. And the least that leadership demands.” The Labour leader had hoped to avert a rebellion with a separate amendment criticising Israel’s military actions but stopping short of calling for a ceasefire, and instructed his members to abstain on the SNP motion. Many chose to vote for both, however, amid anger among Labour members over how Starmer has handled the issue. MPs voted 293 to 125, a majority of 168, to reject the SNP’s amendment, with Qureshi, Khan and Barker quitting before the vote. Phillips, the most high-profile frontbencher, said it was with a “heavy heart” that she was quitting. “This week has been one of the toughest weeks in politics since I entered parliament,” the Birmingham Yardley MP said in her resignation letter. “I have tried to do everything that I could to make it so that this was not the outcome, but it is with a heavy heart that I will be leaving my post in the shadow Home Office team. “On this occasion I must vote with my constituents, my head, and my heart which has felt as if it were breaking over the last four weeks with the horror of the situation in Israel and Palestine. “I can see no route where the current military action does anything but put at risk the hope of peace and security for anyone in the region now and in the future.” Shah (Bradford West) and Khan (Manchester Gorton) told fellow MPs in the Commons of their intention to vote for an immediate ceasefire. Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) said she was going to vote for the amendment but decided to abstain.
After the vote, Shah said: “We have to make our positions clear … our job in parliament is to use our platforms to convince people, which is what I did in the chamber earlier. “I’m not alone in calling for a ceasefire … my inbox has thousands of emails about a ceasefire,” she told Sky News. “This is an issue that the British public feel strongly about. “At some point there will be a ceasefire. Had we called for a ceasefire yesterday, 144 children might still be alive. A child dies every 10 minutes.” Earlier, she told the Commons: “Our values push us to do better and this is why, despite all the risk to our personal positions, we must do what is right. “Whilst it may be a matter of convention to follow our closest ally, the US, in interests of foreign policy, it is a matter of conscience to step away from our closest ally in the interests of peace. “We know that eventually there will be a ceasefire in this current crisis – every war ends with a cessation of hostilities. “The question is not if there will be a ceasefire but when. For the people of Palestine, every minute, every hour, every day we wait is another orphan, another grieving mother and another family wiped out.” The Guardian understands that Khan notified Starmer of his intention to vote for a ceasefire not long before he spoke in the Commons. It is understood Khan was asked if there was anything the leadership could do to change his mind. Khan told the Commons: “If we had a ceasefire yesterday, 144 Gazan children would still be alive today. Israel has already crossed every red line imaginable and broken international humanitarian laws.”
Starmer has faced a growing backlash over his position on the conflict since he gave an interview last month in which he appeared to suggest Israel had the right to withhold water and power from civilians in Gaza. He attempted to heal those divisions in a recent speech at the Chatham House thinktank, in which he urged Israel to adhere to international law but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. Starmer spent much of Wednesday locked in meetings with his shadow ministers as he attempted to minimise the expected rebellion.