Gaza ceasefire vote: What is each party saying and who is supporting it?

Commons will debate today three different proposals for how the fighting between Israel and Hamas should end

Source - Daily Telegraph - 21/02/23

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Sir Keir Starmer faces another major test of his authority as MPs vote for a second time on Wednesday afternoon on backing a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Commons is set to debate up to three different proposals for how to end the fighting which have been put forward by the three main parties.

It will be a huge moment for the Labour leader, who last November faced his biggest rebellion in office when 56 MPs revolted to vote for a truce.

On that occasion, 10 frontbenchers, including eight shadow ministers, resigned from their posts to support an SNP proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Now a vote has once again been triggered by the SNP, which has used one of its opposition days to table a motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire”.

Labour has put down a similar amendment of its own as Sir Keir shifts position once again to try and avoid another damaging rebellion against his leadership.

But Rishi Sunak has thrown a major spanner in the works by putting forward a Government proposal which does not go as far as Labour or the SNP’s.

Here is what the three parties have proposed and how MPs may vote.

Labour

Sir Keir Starmer has been under huge pressure from his own MPs to back an immediate ceasefire, with dozens threatening to rebel and back the SNP motion.

As a result, he has tabled a Labour amendment which calls for both an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and an “immediate stop to the fighting”.

But, as he tries to walk a tightrope between the different wings of his party, he has also added in caveats that differentiate his proposal from the SNP’s.

Labour’s proposed motion says that any ceasefire must be conditional on Hamas agreeing to lay down its weapons and return the hostages it took on Oct 7.

It stipulates that any truce must be “observed by all sides” and that “Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence”.

Sir Keir has also added a sweetener for his own MPs, inserting a line that Israel should not be able to block the “inalienable right” of Palestinians to their own state.

The SNP

Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader in Westminster, claimed victory after Labour tabled its amendment and claimed to have “inserted a backbone” into Sir Keir.

The Scottish National Party’s original motion is very similar to Labour’s proposal in that it calls for an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel”.

But it contains much more aggressive language about Israel’s approach, accusing the country of attacking “what is now the largest refugee camp in the world”.

It also refers to “the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, which amounts to an allegation that Israel has committed war crimes.

The motion does call on Hamas to return all the hostages but, unlike Labour’s amendment, does not directly reference October 7 or Israel’s right to self-defence.

The Tories

Rishi Sunak has also tabled an amendment which, unlike the proposals put forward by Labour and the SNP, does not call for an immediate ceasefire.

Instead it “supports moves towards a permanent sustainable ceasefire” but makes clear that can only happen once Hamas is completely removed from power.

In the meantime, it proposes “negotiations to agree an immediate humanitarian pause as the best way to stop the fighting and to get aid in and hostages out”.

The Tory amendment specifically “supports Israel’s right to self-defence” and “condemns the slaughter, abuse and gender-based violence” of Oct 7.

It says that any permanent ceasefire “Require all hostages to be released, the formation of a new Palestinian government, Hamas to be unable to launch further attacks and no longer in charge in Gaza, and a credible pathway to a two-state solution”.

How will MPs vote?

It will be up to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, to decide which amendments will be put to a vote of MPs, raising a series of possibilities.

The Government’s amendment is expected to be picked, with Tory MPs whipped to support it. Labour MPs are likely to be told to abstain, whilst the SNP is set to vote against it.

But with the Conservatives enjoying a comfortable majority, it would be expected to pass.

The biggest decision will then be whether Labour’s amendment is selected. If it is, Sir Keir appears to have won the backing of enough of his MPs to avoid another big rebellion.

Mr Flynn and Humza Yousaf, the SNP First Minister, have suggested their party will also support it, but the Tories have suggested they will vote against it.

That raises the prospect that either the Labour amendment will be defeated by the Government, or that it will not be selected by Sir Lindsay at all.

In which case Sir Keir will be back in a tricky position, with dozens of his MPs who back an immediate ceasefire poised to rebel and back the original SNP motion.

He will then have to choose whether to allow them to do so, or to try and impose a three-line whip to abstain, in either case risking another damaging blow to his authority.