KEIR Starmer has reportedly failed to heal the rift within his party over the Israel-Hamas war, with several prominent frontbenchers reportedly on “resignation watch”.
The Labour leader and his deputy, Angela Rayner, had a meeting with Muslim MPs and peers straight after PMQs on Wednesday following comments from Starmer in which he appeared to suggest Israel has the right to cut off power and water to Gaza.
This led to backlash from within the Labour Party, with 15 Labour officials in Scotland resigning this week over party rules about responding to the conflict in Gaza.
Some 150 Muslim Labour councillors also wrote to Starmer and Rayner on Wednesday urging them to back an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
A Labour MP told Politico on Wednesday that they have received 1000 emails from constituents “the majority of whom were not Muslim voters.”
Now, up to four shadow ministers are on “resignation watch”, according to The Times. These include Sarah Owen, the shadow faith minister, and Rachel Hopkins, the shadow Cabinet Office minister.
The source added that the party are battling to keep them on side. A member of Starmer’s senior team told The Times: “There’s a real concern that if we lost a shadow minister, for example, that all of the others come under real pressure.”
In a statement after the meeting the Labour leader said: “It’s clear the amount of aid and essential utilities getting into Gaza is completely insufficient to meet the humanitarian emergency on the ground.”
He added: “In the long term there can only be a political solution to this crisis which is why we need to restart the hard work of talks for a two-state solution of a viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.”
