No animosity with Starmer over Gaza vote, Jess Phillips says

MP Jess Phillips said there had been a "huge outpouring of grief and pain" from her constituents in Birmingham Yardley

Labour MP Jess Phillips says there is no animosity between her and Sir Keir Starmer after she quit the party front bench over a ceasefire vote on Gaza.

Ms Phillips said on Wednesday that it was with a "heavy heart" that she was leaving her shadow minister role.

"I don't feel like I am rebelling against the Labour Party, I feel like I am taking a position with my heart my head and my constituents," she said.

Ten of the party's shadow frontbenchers have now left their jobs over the vote.

MP's voted 293 to 125 to reject the Scottish National Party's motion calling for all parties to agree to an "immediate ceasefire" in the region.

Labour leader Sir Keir had previously argued that a ceasefire would not be appropriate, but had advocated for pauses in the bombardment to allow aid into Gaza.

But Ms Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley, said there had been a "huge outpouring of grief and pain" from her constituents about the ongoing situation in Israel and Gaza.

"I don't feel that the current military action is doing anything to secure a stable future in the Middle East," she said.

Sir Keir Starmer had backed pauses in the conflict to allow aid into Gaza

Ms Phillips, who had served as the party's shadow domestic violence minister since 2020, was one of 56 Labour MP's who voted for an immediate ceasefire.

She said she understood Sir Keir and Labour's position but said she did not see where current action "ends in a safer [and] securer Israel and Palestine".

"Newborn babies in incubators are not a threat, and the cost of their lives because there is no fuel getting into Gaza, is just not something I can sit with," she told BBC Radio WM.

"No one is suggesting that Israel doesn't have the right to defend itself - I am suggesting that it has to be completely and utterly proportionally targeted and protects peace in the future."

MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana had also voted for a ceasefire.

"There is nothing humanitarian about letting children eat a little today, only to bomb them tomorrow," she said.

"The only humanitarian way forward is an immediate ceasefire."

Six labour councillors in Walsall, including the group leader Aftab Nawaz, have resigned over the party's position on Gaza and said they would stand as independent councillors, adding that the party had "lost its moral compass".