It was always a question of when, not if, the Labour party would start tearing itself apart over the Israel-Hamas war. The only surprise is the scale and speed with which the veneer of party unity has crumbled. It has revealed deep and vitriolic divisions between the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over his support for Israel, and the pro-Palestinian views of some of his Muslim MPs and others in the wider party.
Starmer knows he has a big problem. But he doesn’t necessarily know what to do about it or indeed how best to keep a lid on it.
The internal party rift shows no signs of healing any time soon
The scale of the dissent and unhappiness over the Labour leader’s pro-Israel stance appears to have taken the party high command by surprise. Anger began to mount after Starmer’s LBC radio interview two weeks ago – let’s call it his original sin – where he said Israel had a right to cut off water and power to Gaza.
A clip of the interview, which took place on 11 October, four days after the Hamas attacks, was widely shared.
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