Keir Starmer says fighting in Gaza ‘must stop now’ in speech to Scottish Labour as allies dodge on whether party’s MPs will back SNP motion demanding ‘immediate ceasefire’

Keir Starmer today insisted fighting in Gaza ‘must stop now’ as allies dodged on whether Labour MPs will back an SNP motion demanding an ‘immediate’ ceasefire.

Sir Keir devoted a section of his speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow to the crisis – after the party north of the border risked inflaming internal divisions by endorsing the separatists’ move.

But Sir Keir stressed that a ceasefire has to ‘stop all acts of violence on both sides’ and ‘last’.

The Labour leader has been struggling to contain a growing rift over the Israel-Gaza conflict – which saw him disown the Rochdale by-election candidate last week.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar described the SNP motion as ‘perfectly reasonable’, and the conference voted to back it this weekend. 

But in interviews this morning, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy insisted that Keir Starmer would decide his stance closer to the vote on Wednesday afternoon. 

Earlier David Lammy said the fighting ‘must’ stop and he understood why Scottish Labour were supporting the separatists’ call

Palestinians inspect the ruins of a collapsed building in Rafah, Gaza today

In his speech, Sir Keir warned Benjamin Netanyahu not to extend Israel’s military offensive to Rafah, as he stressed the need for a two-state solution.

‘Any ceasefire cannot be one-sided. It must stop all acts of violence on both sides and it must lead to a genuine peace process,’ he said.

‘The offensive threatened on Rafah, a place where one-and-a-half million people are now cramped together in unimaginable conditions with nowhere else for them to go.

‘This cannot become a new theatre of war. That offensive cannot happen. Even in these most terrible of circumstances, a two-state solution must be back on the table.’

Sir Keir said everyone wanted to see ‘a return of all the hostages taken on October 7th, an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians, a huge scaling up of humanitarian relief and an end to the fighting’.

‘Not just for now, not just for a pause, but permanently. A ceasefire that lasts. That is what must happen now. The fighting must stop now,’ he said.

Asked earlier what Labour would do on Wednesday, Mr Lammy told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: ‘We all want to see an end to the fighting, it must stop.

‘Over 28,000 people have lost their lives, women and children, you know, one of my children is adopted, (there are) 17,000 orphans now in Gaza, it’s just abominable.

‘So of course people want to see a ceasefire, the question now is how and to be absolutely clear that when that ceasefire comes, we can’t see the fighting restart.

‘I haven’t seen the motion, it’s not yet put down, we will scrutinise that motion as is our way in Parliament and we will take it from there.

‘But let us be clear, yes, we will have a vote in Parliament this week but it’s not that vote that will bring about a ceasefire, it’s the diplomatic action.’

Mr Lammy said he ‘fully understands’ the position of Scottish Labour but any pause in the conflict – which erupted after Hamas massacred Israelis on October 7 – had to be ‘sustainable’.

‘We want the fighting to stop now. I’m not sure that what’s flying around on Twitter says anything about it being sustainable,’ he said.

‘You can have a ceasefire that lasts for a few days. We want the ceasefire to last and to be permanent and to move towards the diplomatic solution. It will only be a political solution that brings an end to this.’

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn confirmed this morning that he will push the issue to a vote on Wednesday. As it is an Opposition Day motion the outcome is not binding, and could be simply ignored by the government.

‘I hope Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer will find the courage to do the only right thing but, if they won’t, it falls to us, MPs of all parties, to show that we demand a ceasefire now,’ Mr Flynn said. 

‘The intolerable situation in Gaza is far more important than any narrow party loyalties – and it places a moral duty on all of us to act.’

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn confirmed this morning that he will push the issue to a vote on Wednesday

The text of the SNP motion states: ‘That this House calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel; notes with shock and distress that the death toll has now risen beyond 28,000, the vast majority of whom were women and children; further notes that there are currently 1.5million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah, 610,000 of whom are children; also notes that they have nowhere else to go; condemns any military assault on what is now the largest refugee camp in the world; further calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken by Hamas and an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people; and recognises that the only way to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians is to press for a ceasefire now.’