Labour MP repeats call for Israel-Gaza ceasefire after vote

Afzal Khan said politician's energies should be focused on finding peace

A Labour MP who defied leader Sir Keir Starmer to back calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war has repeated his demand that the fighting must stop.

Afzal Khan was among eight shadow ministers to step down from the frontbench after the vote earlier this week.

Labour has instead called for a "humanitarian pause".

Manchester Gorton MP Mr Khan said the answer was not to be "more barbaric" than Hamas.

"An eye for an eye. We will all end up blind and that's not the way forward," he said.

"I feel in the response it is almost collective punishment and I feel Israel has crossed all red lines."

He said it was clear that the focus should now be on finding peace.

"I know this as 18 years ago I set up the Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester," he said.

"In the last Gaza war we brought people together and, after that session, the thing that hit me the strongest was a simple point - both sides wanted peace."

Israel has been bombarding the Gaza strip for more than a month

About 240 people were kidnapped by Hamas gunmen during the group's 7 October massacre, which killed 1,200 people.

More than 11,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its retaliatory strikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The vote was on a Scottish National Party amendment to a government motion on its plans for the year ahead, presented in the King's Speech last week.

It called for an end to the "collective punishment of the Palestinian people" and urged "all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire".

Sir Keir had signalled before the vote that MPs holding a frontbench role would be sacked if they backed the ceasefire call.

More on Israel-Gaza war

• Follow live: Latest updates

• From Gaza: BBC goes inside Al-Shifa hospital with the Israeli army

• From Israel: Hostages' fates haunt Israel as Gaza war intensifies

• Explained: The faces of hostages taken from Israel

As a result, Mr Khan resigned from his role as shadow minister for exports along with Jess Phillips, Yasmin Qureshi, Paula Barker, Sarah Owen, Rachel Hopkins, Naz Shah and Andy Slaughter.

It was defeated by 125 votes to 294, with the 56 Labour rebels joining other opposition parties to demand a ceasefire.

A Labour motion, tabled by Sir Keir, backed a pause in the conflict instead, to allow in more humanitarian aid was also heavily defeated.

Mr Khan said while he felt Labour was moving in the right direction as a humanitarian pause was a "starting point," he said progress was slow.

"I think the scale of the losses we already have demands that we should have a ceasefire," he said.

"My concern is we don't stop here. We need to now resolve it so we don't end up with a cycle of violence where innocent people in Israel and Palestine lose their lives."