Keir Starmer reminds critics ‘Israel has faced worst terrorist attack since Holocaust’
The Labour leader told media;'To say to a sovereign country, when more than 200 of its citizens are being held hostage that they should give up their right to self-defence is not for me correct.'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Keir Starmer has refused to heed the demands of those in his party calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, reminding critics:”What we have seen is the worst terrorist attack on Israel since the Holocaust.”
Answering questions from the media at an event in Darlington, the Labour leader added:”To say to a sovereign country, when more than 200 of its citizens are being held hostage that they should give up their right to self-defence is not for me correct.”
Starmer was asked for thoughts on the two Labour councillor leaders in Pendle and Burnley who had issued a statement calling for him to resign over his failure to call a ceasefire.
He said of the two council leader’s actions:”Whatever the position of individual members of my party, that is not focus.”
Starmer said his focus was on “alleviating the awful suffering of all those that have been caught up in the situation over the past weeks.”
The Labour leader said he believes the quickest and most practical way to get help to people is to have a humanitarian pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow for aid supplies to be distributed in the region.
He pointed to the fact that US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, was in Israel calling for this now.
Burnley Council leader Afrasiab Anwar and Asjad Mahmood, who is the leader of Pendle Borough Council, had earlier said they were making the call for Starmer’s resignation on behalf of Labour councillors in their areas.
But Jewish News understands that they issued their statement without informing all councillors in their respective Labour Groups.
One local source said:”Several councillors are utterly fuming. They don’t want a call for the leader of the Labour Party to be issued in their names, without their consent.”
Starmer had used a speech in the north-east to outline Labour’s plans to revitalise the economy.
He said next week’s King’s Speech on behalf of the government should be about “a national mission to get Britain building again and grow our country from the grassroots”.
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