LONDON: A row over the UK main opposition Labour leader's stance on the Zionist war on Hamas escalated Wednesday, with the resignation of one of the party's top team. Keir Starmer, who looks set to become Britain's next prime minister at an election expected next year, according to polling, has refused to call for a permanent ceasefire. Instead, the former human rights lawyer has called for a humanitarian pause to the Zionist entity’s bombardment to allow much-needed aid to reach Palestinians unable to leave the coastal enclave. His stance, however, has caused disquiet within the party.

Late on Tuesday, shadow minister Imran Hussain quit Labour’s front bench in protest at Starmer’s refusal to heed calls from many in his party to push for a Zionist ceasefire. About 50 Labour Party councilors, many Muslim, had earlier resigned from party itself over Starmer’s position, with some even calling for him to step down. In a letter to Starmer, Hussain, the party's spokesman on workers' rights, said he wanted to be a strong advocate for a humanitarian ceasefire.

"A ceasefire is essential to ending the bloodshed, to ensuring that enough aid can pass into Gaza and reach those most in need, and to help ensure the safe return of the Israeli hostages," he wrote. Hussain added that he "unequivocally condemned" Hamas's Oct 7 attacks and firmly agreed that "every country has the right to defend itself". But he said this could "never become a right to deliberately violate international law on protecting civilians or to commit war crimes".

‘Massive divisions’ According to Al Jazeera, Starmer’s woes began after he gave an interview to British broadcaster LBC several weeks ago, in which he appeared to endorse Israel’s military tactic of withholding water and electricity from the people of Gaza. The presenter asked him if “cutting off power, cutting off water” was an appropriate response to the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. Starmer replied, “I think that (The Zionist entity) does have that right ... It is an ongoing situation. Obviously, everything should be done within international law.” Starmer later tried to clarify his remarks, saying he understood his words had caused “real concern and distress in some Muslim communities”.

“Let me clear about what I was saying, and what I wasn’t saying,” he said. “I was saying (the Zionist entity) had the right to self-defense. When I said that right, it was that right to self-defense ... I was not saying (the Zionist entity) had the right to cut off water, food, fuel, or medicines, on the contrary.” But the damage had already been done. “The (Labour) resignations show the massive divisions within the party,” Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), told Al Jazeera. Afrasiab Anwar, the Labour leader of Burnley Council, in England’s northwest, is among those who have resigned. Quitting was “the most difficult decision” of his political career, he told Al Jazeera.

“It was the LBC interview that sparked it all,” said Anwar, who believes Starmer has “failed” at Labour leader’s first real foreign policy test. “And his response to that and the backlash which came from that. He’s been trying to recover [ever since] and has failed to do so.” Starmer, who took over from hard-left former leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2020, has faced a deepening battle to maintain discipline in his top team on the Gaza conflict. At least 16 of his shadow cabinet have either called for a ceasefire or shared others' calls on social media.

A Labour spokesman said a ceasefire would freeze the conflict and "leave hostages in Gaza and Hamas with the infrastructure and capability to carry out the sort of attack we saw on Oct 7". "International law must be followed at all times and innocent civilians must be protected. Labour is calling for humanitarian pauses in the fighting." – Agencies