Keir Starmer is about to prove he can never be Prime Minister over Gaza crisis
Anas Sarwar calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
The Israel-Gaza crisis has completely exposed Sir Keir Starmer and revealed that all the hard work he has put in since replacing Jeremy Corbyn has largely been a façade or an act.
The big sell for the Labour leader was that sensible politics had taken back control of Labour and the days of “magic grandad” (Corbyn’s nickname among many Labour MPs) were over.
Anti-Semitism with a hatred of Israel at its core, in particular, had been expunged from the party and the words “never again” were being used over Labour’s dark chapter in that regard.
The far left of the Corbynista fringe had either been ousted (Corbyn, himself, Diane Abbott and Owen Jones) or confined to the backbenches (John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Zarah Sultana and a number of others).
OK, it took Starmer a while to be able to confirm what a woman is, but with Peter Mandelson whispering in his ear, Pat McFadden running the election campaign and Corbyn banished it seemed that his USP was centrist Blairite mark two, safe to elect and back in control of a previously fractious party.
The Gaza-Israel crisis has proven that was about as far from the truth as the time Sadiq Khan told Londoners that he had no plans to expand ULEZ.
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READ MORE: Starmer crisis erupts as frontbench revolt begins and official inquiry demanded
It now feels inevitable that Starmer will call for a ceasefire in Israel-Gaza and end the united front he and Rishi Sunak have put on in regard to the crisis.
Until now he has correctly struck with the line that “Israel has a right to defend itself” after Hamas’s appalling atrocities but there is now overwhelming pressure from within Labour for him to change tack.
Of course, a ceasefire will only serve to allow Hamas to embed itself further behind civilian targets and rearm for yet more atrocities. But never mind that the unity of the Labour Party is at stake.
What this has exposed is that Starmer has not been able to end the anti-Semitism in his party by a long way.
Now he is being bombarded by two powerful factions in Labour – the increasing reliance on the Muslim vote especially in big cities and the return of the Corbynistas.
Starmer is in effect a prisoner of his party’s own factions.
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It was obvious this was going to happen from the outset as the dreadful news of the murders, burning to death of children, kidnaps, torture and rapes of Hamas came out on October 7 just as Labour was about to start its conference in Liverpool.
It did not take long to find Israel-hating fringes in support of Palestine listed and Starmer was too cowardly to try to stop them.
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy was eventually forced to go to a rally for Palestine at the end of the conference to keep the mob happy.
The issue is that Palestinians, and a hatred of the state of Israel, have been an obsession for the left for decades whatever the circumstances, whatever atrocities Hamas committed.
Then with Rishi Sunak’s statement to the House, we saw another warning sign.
Labour MP after Labour got up with the preprepared “I condemn the actions of Hamas, nothing can justify what they did but…”
It was always in the “but”. In reality, there was little sympathy for Israel and a growing obsession to force Starmer to demand Israel did not defend itself.
Now it is all out in the open.
The Corbynista wing of the party with all its barely concealed anti-Semitism is in full flow demanding that Israel stops defending itself and calling for a ceasefire.
But more importantly, the two leading Muslims in the party London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar have led demands for a ceasefire.
Neither were friends of the Corbynistas but both have the Palestinian issue at the core of their political beliefs.
On top of that, there have been resignations of councillors including in Oxford where it led to Labour losing control of the city council.
Even in Bury, which contains a significant Jewish voting population, the Labour council leader has called for a ceasefire and seven Muslim councillors have sent Starmer a letter demanding he backs a ceasefire.
Starmer has lost control of the narrative.
Things are only going to get worse with the images of the bomb damage coming out of Gaza and the Israeli Defence Force preparing to send ground troops in.
So now an onerous choice faces Starmer.
Both have implications about his leadership and what sort of Prime Minister he would be beyond this single issue.
Either he caves into the overwhelming pressure to call for a ceasefire or he loses control of his party.
With the first choice it will prove that while he is still the favourite to win the election, he would be a Primino – a Prime Minister in name only – controlled by the factions within his party, unable to govern properly.
With the second choice he could end up facing a leadership challenge and if not will be attempting to lead such a fractious and angry party that there would be serious questions over whether he could control it anyway.
The second choice of sticking to his guns would at least show principle but for a man who is now so associated with the word “U-turn” it feels highly likely he will choose the path of least resistance.
After all, that is what the anti-Israel BBC effectively wants him to do as well as the Guardian and the rest of the leftwing media.
Labour still has a 21-point lead over the Tories and while the fate of Israel may not itself be a game changer the way Starmer handles this week and the impact on his own authority as leader will be.
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