Labour Frontbenchers Resign Following Rebellion on Gaza Ceasefire Motion

Eight Labour frontbenchers have resigned following Wednesday’s dramatic vote over a Gaza ceasefire, which marked Keir Starmer’s biggest challenge yet as Labour Leader.

A total of 56 Labour MPs voted against the party line, in favour of an amendment to the government’s legislative agenda introduced by the Scottish National Party (SNP). The amendment would “call on the government to join with the international community in urgently pressing all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire”.

Starmer had called for Labour to vote against the amendment, espousing the government’s stance that while humanitarian pauses should be called for, a ceasefire would “embolden” Hamas. The amendment did not pass, but it ignited a crisis within the Labour Party.

Jess Phillips, Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, was among the eight frontbenchers who resigned after the vote. In her resignation letter she wrote, “I have tried to do everything that I could to make it so that this was not the outcome, but it is with a heavy heart that I will be leaving my post in the Shadow Home Office team.

“On this occasion I must vote with my constituents, my head, and my heart, which has felt as if it were breaking over the last four weeks with the horror of the situation in Israel and Palestine.

“I can see no route where the current military action does anything but put at risk the hope of peace and security for anyone in the region now and in the future.”

Mass Resignation Leaves Labour Party Reeling

The other frontbenchers who quit over the vote are Rachel Hopkins, Shadow Minister for Veterans; Sarah Owen, Shadow Minister for Local Government and Faith; Yasmin Qureshi, Shadow Minister for International Development; Andy Slaughter, Shadow Solicitor General; Paula Barker, Shadow Minister for devolution and the English Regions; Afzal Khan, Shadow Minister for Legal Aid of the United Kingdom; and Naz Shah, Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction. Two Parliamentary Private Secretaries, Dan Carden and Mary Foy, also resigned.

“I regret that some colleagues felt unable to support the position tonight. But I wanted to be clear about where I stood, and where I will stand,” Starmer said after the vote.

Humza Yousaf, First Minister of Scotland, commented that those who voted against the SNP amendment are “on the wrong side of history”.

“MPs had the chance to put humanity before politics.  To say the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza must stop. And it must stop now,” he said.

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