Councillors call on Starmer to resign over Gaza

Two council leaders have called for Sir Keir Starmer to step down

Labour councillors have called on Sir Keir Starmer to resign as party leader for refusing to back a Gaza ceasefire.

Burnley Council leader Afrasiab Anwar and Asjad Mahmood, who is the leader of Pendle Borough Council, said they were making the call on behalf of Labour councillors in their areas.

Mr Anwar said Sir Keir had "not stood up for Labour values".

Sir Keir said his focus on the Middle East was alleviating suffering, not calls from his own party to resign.

Israel began its operation in Gaza after Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 200 others on 7 October.

It has since carried out thousands of air and artillery strikes, with its ground offensive continuing.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said more than 9,000 people have been killed since 7 October.

Israeli ground forces have advanced deep into Gaza since the start of the "second stage" of the war with Hamas

Mr Anwar said he and his colleagues had "seen the sad loss of people including young children in Palestine".

He said that "blindly following the position of Rishi Sunak" was "not acceptable to us and our residents who we represent".

Mr Mahmood said Mr Starmer had "failed to listen" to calls for a ceasefire to "stop the innocent loss of lives".

He added that he should resign to "allow someone to lead our party who has compassion and speaks out against injustice and indiscriminate killing of innocent human beings".

There are 22 Labour councillors on Burnley Council and nine on Pendle Borough Council.

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• History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflict

The calls come after Sobia Malik, who represents Burnley Central East on Lancashire County Councillor, announced her resignation from the Labour party.

Ms Malik, who will now stand as an independent councillor, said Mr Starmer's "profound inability" to "demonstrate empathy or compassion, let alone challenge war crimes, has made my membership untenable".

"I will always love the Labour Party and its values but I cannot reconcile these values with the stance of the current leadership," she added.

Labour has seen a number of resignations in councils across England over its stance on Gaza, including in Oxford where the party has lost control of the city council.

The MP for Middlesbrough Andy McDonald has also been suspended as a Labour MP, after the party said he had made "deeply offensive" comments relating to the Israel-Gaza war.

'Correct position'

When asked about calls from Labour council leaders for him to stand down, Sir Keir said: "My focus is on alleviating the awful suffering of all of those that are caught up in the situation that has developed over the last few weeks.

"Whatever the individual positions of members of my party, that is not my focus."

He insisted a humanitarian pause was the "only practical way" to do this.

"To say to a sovereign country when 200 of its civilians are being held hostage that they must give up their right to self-defence, is not for me the correct position," he added.

"Anyone who has watched the images in the last two or three days have seen precisely what Hamas is saying about this."

Labour said the party had condemned the actions of Hamas and "stressed the need to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza" but that Israel had a right to "stop Hamas from being able to carry out that sort of terrorist attack ever again".

"Keir Starmer has been clear that in the long term there can only be a political solution to this crisis which is why we need a two-state solution," a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Conservative councillors in Slough have written an open letter calling for "an immediate ceasefire", which is against the government's position.

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