Labour’s Gaza Shame - Part 1

It was a day designated as an SNP opposition day. So it should have surprised no-one that the Scot Nats put forward a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, no ifs, no buts, no get-out clause, no conditional statement. Then Labour put forward its own amendment, to demand an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. And then came the Speaker.

Mr Speaker is very sorry ...

Lindsay Hoyle waves his arms and otherwise flaps a lot. He generates significant amounts of hot air. Yesterday, he went against recent tradition by allowing the Labour amendment to go first, which, as the BBC report put it, prompted “fury from both the SNP and the Conservatives”.

So why was the Labour amendment an equivocation? Beeb again: “Labour's amendment, which called for an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ noted that Israel ‘cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence’ and called for a diplomatic process to deliver ‘a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state’ … While the initial motion tabled by the SNP went further, calling for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ and an end to the ‘collective punishment of the Palestinian people’”. Meaning what?

Meaning this gave the Israeli Government the old get-out ploy. Also, “Sir Lindsay's decision meant Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer avoided another potential rebellion over the party's position on Gaza as Labour MPs were able to show their support for a ceasefire without voting for an SNP motion”.

Was this merely Keir Starmer getting lucky? Apparently not: as Nick Watt of Newsnight told, “Senior Labour figures tell me [Commons Speaker] was left in no doubt that Labour would bring him down after the general election unless he called Labour’s Gaza amendment”. An amendment which got round Starmer ordering his MPs to abstain on the SNP motion.

That could have caused cracks to appear in the ostensibly solid and united Labour edifice, the possibility of open revolt among some shadow ministers. It may not have been caving in to Labour threats, but you could see it from there. In any case, what was stopping The Red Team from just giving its MPs a free vote? What was wrong with just saying “ceasefire now”?

... to have let an opportunist politician off the hook

Ah well. While the BBC Politics feed told “‘I regret how it's ended up... it was never my intention for it to end up like this’ … Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle says he ‘tried to do what he thought was the right thing for all sides of this House’ as he apologises for his decision”, there was uproar outside the chamber as protesters voiced their displeasure at MPs’ behaviour.

And then came the inevitable fallout. Nick Watt again: “Looking like [SNP] MPs minded to sign the Will Wragg EDM expressing no confidence in [Commons Speaker]. One Tory: When the Tories and SNP agree then something big is afoot”. Owen Jones had his own take on the matter.

“Labour blackmailed the Speaker into violating Parliamentary protocol so they could shield Israel from the charge of collective punishment … Any political journalist worth their money should be clear that’s what happened … The Speaker allowed himself to be bullied and should resign”. The problem is that too many journalists were whining “look over there” at the protesters.

Who could be smeared as “extremists”, or worse, merely for wanting an end to the slaughter, and then getting justifiably angry when their elected representatives used the exercise to put the frighteners on Lindsay Hoyle, and otherwise show the world that their priorities did not include stopping thousands of women and children from being blown apart in Gaza.

Journalist Sol Hughes surveyed the wreckage and concluded “I was once in some Courtroom training. A Barrister explained that if you ask a witness a question, then look away when they answer, they'll raise their voice to get your attention , so you can try make them seem angry + unreasonable. It's how Labour are treating Gaza protests”. And all for what?

The Speaker may have been fatally undermined. Meanwhile, the killing goes on. And Starmer’s Labour treats it as a game. Bad, bad mistake.

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