Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech on the situation in the Middle East at Chatham House in central London, October 31, 2023
LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls from within his own party to resign over his stance on Gaza and to allow someone with compassion to replace him.
The leaders of Burnley and Pendle Labour groups have called on Sir Keir to stand aside as he continues to resist calls to back a ceasefire.
Pendle borough councillor Asjad Mahmood said his party leader has “failed to listen” and called on him to “resign to allow someone to lead our party who has compassion and speaks out against injustice.”
Burnley council leader Afrasiab Anwar said a humanitarian pause is “not good enough,” adding: “The leader of the opposition should in the least be applying pressure on the Prime Minister, on the government, to call for a ceasefire and a release of all hostages.
“The reason that a humanitarian pause is not good enough is because obviously the aid will get in but then the bombing, the attacks will start again.
“What we’re seeing is that these innocent civilians have got nowhere to escape to.
“The number of lives that we’re seeing lost, the number of people, innocent civilians, who are losing their lives on both sides, we need to call it out and there needs to be a stop to it.”
Sixteen Labour frontbenchers have now either called for a ceasefire or shared others’ calls backing one on social media.
More than 330 Labour councillors have urged Sir Keir to go further and back a ceasefire in an open letter.
They said: “The intensified human catastrophe in Gaza impacts us all, and the Labour Party’s failure to call for an end to violence is causing hurt in our communities.
“We cannot stay silent while even the sick and dying who are accessing urgent care in hospitals are not safe.”
Sir Keir sought to play down the divisions, insisting that his focus was on stopping the suffering in Gaza not on the “individual positions” of party members when asked about the resignation calls.
On whether he would sack shadow cabinet members for opposing his view, he said: “Collective responsibility is important.
“It’s my job as leader of the party to assess how we enforce and bring about collective responsibility and I will do so.”
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