Divisions are emerging within the Labour Party over the inflammatory language used by some backbenchers when talking about the war in Gaza.
Yesterday, nearly two out of eight hours of parliamentary business were devoted to discussing Israel’s conflict against Hamas in Gaza.
This included three questions at Prime Minister’s Questions, a 92-minute debate following a ministerial statement and a bill by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to bring about a Chilcot-style inquiry into the UK’s role in the conflict in Gaza.
Of the 34 Labour MPs who spoke in the debate, 13 had clips of their speeches on their social media feeds in under 24 hours and two others had photos of themselves participating in the anti-Israel demonstration outside of Parliament.
But despite not speaking up in the chamber, several Labour MPs are increasingly frustrated with the interventions of their colleagues and the language they’re using.
One frontbench Labour MP told the JC: “Ignorant and inflammatory language from colleagues will not end this war.”
They added: “They wilfully ignore that it’s Hamas who won’t agree to a ceasefire deal – which is on the table now – it’s Hamas who started this war, it’s Hamas who have stolen aid from the Gazan people. This government has shown huge concern for the humanitarian situation through action – on arms, on aid, and on sanctions.”
Although some of the critical interventions came from MPs on the left of the Parliamentary Labour Party, not all did.
Louise Haigh, who served in Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet until November last year, said it was “it is impossible to conclude” that Israel’s actions amounted to “anything less than a genocide” as she urged “that sanctions be imposed immediately on Netanyahu and his genocidal regime”.
Tooting MP Rosena Allin-Khan, considered to be on the soft left, described Netanyahu and his government as “murderous” and on radio station LBC said that the situation in Gaza was “worse than hell”.
Liam Byrne, chair of the business and trade select committee – who in 2013 wrote for pro-Israel group Bicom’s journal, Fathom, that the UK has “much to learn” from Israel’s start-up economy – said yesterday that “We should not be negotiating trade deals with the Israeli government, we should not have trade envoys on the ground and we should not delay recognition of the state of Palestine.”
Backbencher after backbencher demanded tougher action against Israel, apart from Labour Friends of Israel chair Jon Pearce who urged colleagues to recognise that Hamas had refused multiple efforts to secure a ceasefire.
One Labour source was particularly scathing of MPs elected at last year’s general election, whom, they suggested, “couldn’t find Gaza on a map, but they’ve realised the quickest way to an easy life from their constituency party is to adopt the kind of anti-Israel rhetoric they’d have condemned under Corbyn.”
It has been suggested that Labour’s unexpected losses – and near losses – at the general election in constituencies with significant numbers of Muslim voters is a reason for some MPs’ repeated interventions on the topic.
The source expressed concern that some MPs were still paralysed by that fear, rather than focusing on more pressing threats to Labour’s standing in the polls.
“You’d think after being slaughtered by Reform in the recent locals, Labour MPs would have turned their focus onto issues that need sorting, like immigration. Instead, they’re more interested in the handful of seats where they’re terrified of the Muslim vote”, they added.
One Labour MP also attacked their colleagues for undermining what they saw as the government’s attempts to take tougher positions against both Israel and Hamas.
“The prime minister and foreign secretary are taking an increasingly robust and outspoken position in relation to Israel and Hamas. The hostages must be released but Israel also needs to allow aid in and to de-escalate”, they said.
Last month, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced sanctions against three individuals and four firms linked to West Bank settlements and froze talks on a free trade agreement in protest against Israel’s actions in both Gaza and the West Bank.
In yesterday’s debate, the government said it was considering further action “If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid.”
“I don’t understand how one sided and inflammatory language and attacking the Labour government helps the situation in any way”, the Labour MP added.
Another Labour MP told the JC that Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, “deserves a medal for calmly and rationally handling hours of this student union-level nonsense.”
They added that it was “depressing” that “every statement on Gaza has turned into a dismal circus where otherwise sensible MPs compete with the worst of the Corbynite left to dream up the most extreme, distorted and one-sided condemnatory language about Israel that they can.”
The MP described the situation in Gaza as “very bad” but said that it didn’t “require lurid language about ‘genocide’.
“These repetitive questions are not actually about helping Gazans they are social media clips for constituency consumption”, they added.
It is not just Labour MPs who are increasingly vocally critical of Israel. Former Conservative cabinet minister Kit Malthouse called Gaza an “abattoir, where starving people are lured out through combat zones to be shot at”. He added: “If the situation were reversed, we would now, quite rightly, be mobilising the British armed forces as part of an international protection force.”
One of the questions at PMQs came from Claire Hanna from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), whom one backbencher attacked, saying: “I’m not sure why we allow the two SDLP MPs to sit on the government side of the house when their only contribution seems to be attacks on the Labour government.”
The conflict in Gaza has long been the focus of MPs, often at the expense of domestic matters which Parliament has control over.
Last year, the JC revealed that in the year after October 7 MPs spent more than double the amount of Parliamentary time talking about Israel than about the NHS.
As there are few signs of an agreement to end the war in Gaza, it seems unlikely that the topic will be raised any less nor that the language will be any more tempered.
