British Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Sunday there should be a lasting cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, setting out his stance before parliament is expected to debate a conflict that has caused division in the opposition party.
With Labour well ahead in the polls before an election later this year, Starmer is keen to present a united front to voters, but the conflict in Gaza has tested that unity.
Nearly a third of his lawmakers defied him last year to back calls for an immediate cease-fire, and the party had to withdraw support for a candidate over his comments about Israel earlier this month.
This week, the Scottish National Party is expected to bring a motion to parliament to call for an immediate cease-fire – something Starmer's foreign policy chief David Lammy said the party would examine and then come to a decision on.
Addressing the Scottish Labour conference, Starmer said: "What we all want to see… (is) an end to the fighting not just now, not just for a pause, but permanently. A cease-fire that lasts… that is what must happen now."
He added that any cease-fire could not be one-sided. "It must stop all acts of violence on both sides, and it must lead to a genuine peace process," he said.
He emphasized that "the offensive threatened on Rafah…cannot
become a new theater of war. That offensive cannot happen."
He concluded with strongly suggesting that "even in these
most terrible of circumstances, the two-state solution must be back on the table: a safe and secure Israel… And alongside that, a viable Palestinian state."
Earlier, the Labour leader, like Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, had called for a "sustainable cease-fire" and his aides said his words did not amount to a change in position.
Last week, Labour disowned an election candidate who claimed that Israel allowed Hamas' October 7 attack to happen as a pretext to invade Gaza.
Azhar Ali was selected last month to run for Labour in a Feb. 29 special election for the House of Commons seat representing Rochdale, a constituency in northwest England. Soon after, a newspaper published remarks he had made during a local party meeting last year.
Ali apologized, and senior Labour figures called the comments "totally unacceptable," but the party did not immediately suspend him. After increasing pressure, Labour said Monday that while it was too late to replace Ali on the ballot, the party had "withdrawn its support" for him.
"We understand that these are highly unusual circumstances, but it is vital that any candidate put forward by Labour fully represents its aims and values," the party said in a statement.
Since taking the helm of Labour in 2020, leader Keir Starmer has steered the social democratic party back toward the political middle ground after the divisive tenure of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, a staunch socialist who advocated nationalization of key industries and infrastructure.
The party now has a double-digit poll lead over the governing Conservatives, with an election due to be held this year.
Starmer also repaired relations with Britain's Jewish community and vowed to root out antisemitism that tainted the party under Corbyn, a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause. Corbyn was suspended from Labour in 2020 after he claimed opponents had exaggerated the scale of antisemitism in the party for "political reasons."
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