Angela Rayner: ‘We are very clear… Hamas has over 130 hostages still to be released’

Labour’s Angela Rayner has launched an impassioned defence of her party’s position in relation to Gaza and calls for an immediate ceasefire on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, telling viewers:”We are very clear… Hamas still has over 130 hostages, still to be released.”

Interviewed by presenters Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid, deputy leader Rayner was asked why in a vote in parliament last November she had failed to back an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

She said:” The challenge with what is happening in Gaza, no one can look at the TV and see what’s happening – I’m a mother and a grandmother myself – and you see the devastation in Gaza is absolutely horrific.”

But she then explained how adopting the “ceasefire now” approach favoured by many pro-Palestine campaigners only helped the terrorists of Hamas.

“We are very clear,” she said of the position adopted by Labour under Keir Starmer. “We want to see a situation where Hamas gives the hostages – we still have over 130 hostages, people who were going about their daily business on the 7th of October slaughtered, murdered and taken from their families – still to be released.

“And we need to see a sustainable ceasefire and we need to have that humanitarian aid getting into Gaza as quickly as possible.. There isn’t enough aid getting into Gaza, and we are pushing for that.”

Rayner was then asked about the protest staged last week at a fundraising dinner in Stockport, where she had spoken.

A female activist stood up and shouted at Rayner “What kind of feminist are you? 15,000 women and children dead and you towt yourself a modern day feminist.”

Asked by Reid about the “strong feeling” directed at both herself and Starmer over Labour’s position on Israel, Rayner said:”I understand that strong feeling.

“I would do everything I possibly could to stop what’s happening.”

Reid then said:”What about a ceasefire?”  Rayner responded that “realistically” these calls from the UK would not stop what was continuing to happen in Gaza.

She added:”What we are trying to do at the moment is bring about a ceasefire. Bring about the release of those hostages and bring about a two state solution.

“I would give everything to make that happen. I’m a mother myself. Looking at what has been happening in that region for many decades, I would do anything. We are trying to do that.”

The Labour deputy leader also attempted to defend Westminster politicians across all parties from the often threatening conduct they have been on the receiving end of from some in the pro-Palestinian movement.

She said of hopes for an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas:” In fairness every single member of parliament wants to see that. I don’t think there is any member of parliament in the uk that doesn’t want to see that.