Growing Frustration Among Labour MPs That Government's Israel Position Isn't Working
Aftermath of air strikes on the Hezbollah-linked Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution in Beirut, Lebanon. (Alamy)
6 min read
Labour MPs say there is pressure building across the party on the Government to take stronger action in response to Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza.
An Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by independent MP Richard Burgon urging the Government to take additional steps has secured the support of MPs from seven different parties in Parliament so far, including a number of Labour MPs.
Burgon was a Labour MP until July when he had the Whip removed for defying the Government in a House of Commons vote on the two-child cap.
The EDM "calls on the Government to act in support of the UN resolution and ICJ opinion including by ending all military exports to Israel, banning the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and revoking the 2030 Roadmap which deepens UK economic, trade and security ties with Israel".
Burgon told PoliticsHome he expected more backbenchers, including Labour MPs, to sign the EDM in the coming weeks as Israel continues its assaults on Gaza and Lebanon.
"What I've put down in this motion reflects not just backbench opinion, but also reflects the opinion of some within the front bench who won't be able to put the name to it," he said.
There were hopes that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by the Israeli milltary last week would bring an end to the conflict, but so far it has continued. Just over a year ago, terrorist group Hamas seized 235 hostages and killed 1,200 people in a surprise terror attack on Israel. More than 41,000 Palestianians have died in the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza that has followed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry controlled by Hamas.
Israel is also carrying out attacks in Lebanon on what it describes as targets linked to terrorist group Hezbollah.
The Keir Starmer Government has repeatedly called for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, with Starmer last night stating the "horrific suffering must end" in Gaza.
However, many Labour MPs are increasingly concerned that the pressure being applied to Israel by the UK Government and its Western allies is not having the desired effect. Back benchers who are leading calls for stronger Government action claim the feeling is widespread, and not just limited to the left of Parliamentary Labour Party.
Another signatory to the EDM is Peter Lamb, the new MP for Crawley, who is not a Socialist Campaign Group member and opposed Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the party.
“Ultimately, there's a limit to how many half measures you can deploy," he told PoliticsHome.
The MP said he had been "very frank from the start – I've been uncomfortable with the Government's position" on Gaza. Lamb said he has “a lot of time for Hamish Falconer”, a fellow new Labour MP and the minister for the Middle East, who is “doing his best”.
But he added that the Government will have to revisit its policy of arms sales to Israel if prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not change course.
“At some point, you have to accept the fact that if Israel does not want to listen to anyone else on human rights questions, then our obligation to supply them with armaments in order to defend themselves doesn't really exist,” said Lamb.
“If they want to have British weapons, they've got to be prepared to listen to us on how these weapons are deployed. And what we have at the moment instead is, in Gaza, I strongly suspect the International Court of Justice will come back and say it’s genocide, and in terms of the wider region there's an awful lot of destabilisation happening.”
Lamb acknowledged that it is “very comfortable” for MPs in the UK to take this position when they are “sitting in a country that's free from rocket attacks”, unlike Israel. “I am mindful... that they do feel directly threatened,” he said.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy (Alamy)
However, he added: "It's not a very nice government, is it? It's a highly nationalistic government, and that isn't something which as a left-wing political party we should feel comfortable supporting in terms of their measures.
“It's quite clear the Foreign Office don't agree with what they're doing, but they're trying to be very gentle with all this.”
Lamb suggested that the UK should be “very clear that we oppose what's happening in Gaza, we oppose what's happening in Lebanon, and that Israel needs to wind itself back and focus on defence and what went wrong on 7 October in terms of security arrangements, and try to negotiate to get their hostages back, while the world supports them in trying to take down Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organisations”.
“There are many other ways to do that,” he said.
“I remember a number of very erudite articles being written in from policy journals at the time of 7 October, walking through the ways that you could tackle this in terms of stopping the flow of armaments, stopping the flow of funding, and going after leaders, that would have been, I suspect, far more effective at actually weakening organisations.
“Instead, Hamas has never had a greater recruitment campaign in its history than the invasion of Gaza.”
Another Labour MP who signed the EDM said they had done so to try and get the Government to take "some decisive action, instead of just turning a blind eye and warm words", and expressed dissatisfaction with discussions with ministers on the issue.
"It's gone on for over a year, the amount of death and destruction that we're seeing plays out our screens every single day... People are being dehumanised," they said.
"Kids being blown up where they're taking sanctuary in schools and hospitals. When does that not be enough? Where does that say to you that this is a country defending itself?"
They added they believed there were Labour MPs, including those on the frontbench, who would likely have signed the EDM had they not feared consequences from leadership.
"[More Labour MPs] don't want to put up their heads above the parapet. People are being whipped very strongly about what they can and what they can't say, can sign, can't sign..." they said.
Andy McDonald, a Labour MP on the left of the party, told PoliticsHome he had signed the EDM on Israel because "everything that we've said and done has not moved dial with Israel's behaviour" both in Gaza and in Lebanon.
"It's so, so important that we are not facilitating the continuation of these egregious breaches of international law, so that was my rationale for for supporting [the EDM]," said the MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East.
He told PoliticsHome the topic was not "a left-right issue" and "transcends all those divisions" in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
"It's parliamentarians standing up for the rule of law and the international rules based order."
Despite wanting the Government to go further, McDonald did also say that people should not "underestimate" some of the action Labour ministers have already taken.
"We do have to recognise that some significant steps have been taken, and that would be the fact that we do have the suspension of some of the arms export licenses," said McDonald.
"We can't underestimate that. And let's also remember that the UK, the new incoming Labor Government, has withdrawn its ability to make submissions to oppose the ICC the arrest warrant. We can't set that aside.
"But there's more – much, much more – to do."
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