Two Labour council say Starmer should resign over his refusal to call for ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war – UK politics live

Labour leader to give speech to set out ‘big build’ vision which risks being overshadowed by party’s internal revolt over Middle East

Good morning. Keir Starmer is giving what is being billed as a major speech at lunchtime. It is his second big speech, with a media Q&A afterwards, this week, and after focusing on the Israel-Hamas war on Tuesday, today he wants to explain what would be in the king’s speech next week if Labour were in power. But his “big build” vision continues to be overshadowed by the Labour internal revolt driven by members, councillors and MPs appalled by his refusal to cause for a ceasefire in the Middle East.

In a fresh development, the leaders of two Labour councils in Lancashire, Afrasiab Anwar (Burnley) and Asjad Mahmood (Pendle) have issued a statement saying Starmer should resign. They say they are speaking on behalf of Labour councillors in their areas and Anwar says Starmer must go because he has “not stood up for Labour values”. Mahmood says Starmer should make way for a new leader “who has compassion and who speaks out against injustice and indiscriminate killing of innocent human beings”.

The reason that a humanitarian pause is not good enough is because obviously the aid will get in but then the bombing, the attacks will start again. What we’re seeing is that these innocent civilians have got nowhere to escape to.

The whole international community came out and said that Israel has the right to defend itself, just as any other nation does, but it’s got to be proportional and within international law.