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<\/p>\nThere is war in the Middle East \u2014 and a civil war in the British Labour Party. The two are intimately connected.<\/p>\n
The purely domestic one (which involves no bloodshed) was sparked by Sir Keir Starmer’s statement to the House of Commons, in the wake of the massacres carried out by Hamas, that ‘Labour stands by Israel’; and by his subsequent response that ‘Israel does have that right’ when asked on LBC radio by the presenter Nick Ferrari: ‘Is a siege [of Gaza] appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water?’<\/p>\n
After a gap of nine days, when that clip from the interview had caused uproar within the party’s membership and the resignation of droves of Labour councillors, Starmer eventually ‘clarified’ that he hadn’t meant what he said face-to-face to Ferrari in a studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which, if you were being pernickety, might be counted as yet another U-turn by Sir Keir.<\/p>\n
In fact, the Labour leader is holding the line of supporting Israel’s absolute right of self-defence against a primordial threat to its security, and is rejecting the demands from more than 50 of his MPs that he backs calls for a ceasefire (as if that would have any effect on the terrorists of Hamas, or, indeed, the Israel Defence Forces).<\/p>\n
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The purely domestic one (which involves no bloodshed) was sparked by Sir Keir Starmer’s statement to the House of Commons, in the wake of the massacres carried out by Hamas , that ‘Labour stands by Israel’<\/p>\n
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In fact, the Labour leader is holding the line of supporting Israel’s absolute right of self-defence against a primordial threat to its security (pictured: Israeli air strike in Gaza)<\/p>\n
As the Shadow Environment Secretary Steve Reed explained: ‘A ceasefire would mean that terrorist capacity was still in place [and] Hamas could do it again.’<\/p>\n
But at least a dozen other Labour frontbenchers are calling for exactly that, flouting Keir Starmer’s authority \u2014 and have not been sanctioned in any way. This is nothing less than a breakdown in the collective responsibility which is meant to abide in a government-in-waiting as much as it does in the actual Cabinet.<\/p>\n
Among those shadow ministers who have broken this rule is Yasmin Qureshi. This is the Bolton MP who, nine years ago, having described how ‘many millions perished’ during the Holocaust, declared: ‘It is quite strange that some of the people who are running the state of Israel seem … happy to allow the same to happen in Gaza.’<\/p>\n
Drawing any sort of equivalence between the Israeli government and the Nazis who systematically set about the extermination of the entire Jewish population of Europe is grotesque; but it is hardly uncommon within the Labour Party, even after the end of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to ‘tear up by its roots’ anti-Semitism within the party.<\/p>\n
I am not for a moment arguing that all those MPs and councillors rejecting Starmer’s approach are anti-Semites. But among Labour activists \u2014 and the many millions of British Muslims who faithfully vote Labour \u2014 the Palestinian cause is one they care most deeply about: and Starmer’s phrase ‘Labour stands by Israel’ are words they choke on.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir would doubtless like to discipline those in the Shadow Cabinet calling for ‘a ceasefire’ \u2014 that is, for Israel not to engage militarily with the terrorists whose avowed aim is the murder of Jews, for being Jews. But he knows that those MPs are saying what the great majority of the party’s membership believes.<\/p>\n
There is a parallel here with the travails of a number of Conservative leaders, notably John Major, over the issue of Britain’s membership of the European Union (eventually resolved by David Cameron with a referendum, though without the outcome he had expected).<\/p>\n
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Among those shadow ministers who have broken this rule is Yasmin Qureshi (pictured). This is the Bolton MP who, nine years ago, having described how ‘many millions perished’ during the Holocaust, declared: ‘It is quite strange that some of the people who are running the state of Israel seem … happy to allow the same to happen in Gaza’<\/p>\n
Major’s period of office, especially after the collapse of his policy of membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, was characterised by his inability to act as he would have wanted against the Eurosceptics within his Cabinet. He knew their hostility to any further extension of EU governance over the laws of the member states was a view held by the vast majority of party members at constituency level.<\/p>\n
This became clear when, not realising his microphone was still on, Major in 1993 told ITN’s political editor Michael Brunson about ‘the bastards’ in his Cabinet (thought to refer to Michael Howard, Peter Lilley and Michael Portillo). The PM made it clear that he would have liked to sack them, but they would then become even more of a threat to his authority within the party.<\/p>\n
Another resemblance between the two situations is that the issues are not ones which are at the forefront of most voters’ minds. This is what Cameron meant when he said voters were fed up with the party ‘banging on about Europe’.<\/p>\n
Similarly, while the Israel\/Palestinian issue is of huge significance for those here with ties to the region, or with deep personal convictions about the matter, the majority of Britons will, if Labour spends the year ahead of the next election arguing among themselves about the Middle East, see this as perversely disconnected from their own day-to-day concerns.<\/p>\n
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Sir Keir would doubtless like to discipline those in the Shadow Cabinet calling for ‘a ceasefire’ -that is, for Israel not to engage militarily with the terrorists whose avowed aim is the murder of Jews, for being Jews (pictured: pro-Palestine protesters in London)<\/p>\n
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This is Crispin Blunt (pictured), who is a director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians. However, Blunt also happens to have been arrested last week on suspicion of rape and the use of ‘controlled substances’, which he denies<\/p>\n
There is a third similarity. There was no fissure within Labour over ‘Europe’: only a handful of its MPs were in favour of leaving the EU, while the Conservative benches were split almost 50-50.<\/p>\n
But now, while Labour is painfully conflicted over what is happening in Israel and Gaza, just one Tory MP has come out to say that the UK might be ‘aiding and abetting war crimes in Gaza’.<\/p>\n
This is Crispin Blunt, who is a director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians. However, Blunt also happens to have been arrested last week on suspicion of rape and the use of ‘controlled substances’, which he denies. Nevertheless, this has led to him being suspended by his party and makes him a less than ideal spokesman for his cause.<\/p>\n
Yes, the issue of our membership of the EU was one which went on, bitterly, for many years. But so can wars in the Middle East. The past fortnight’s difficulties for Keir Starmer may only be the start.<\/p>\n
FOR ‘FACTS’, RACHEL, YOU CAN’T TRUST WIKIPEDIA<\/span><\/p>\n As we accustom ourselves to the idea that AI could be used by the unscrupulous to produce entire books masquerading as their own brainwork, how refreshing it is to come across an example of good old-fashioned plagiarism.<\/span><\/p>\n I refer to the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, whose book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, was published last week, only for the Financial Times to reveal that at least 20 paragraphs appeared to have been cut and pasted from, among other unacknowledged sources, Wikipedia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I refer to the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves (pictured), whose book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, was published last week, only for the Financial Times to reveal that at least 20 paragraphs appeared to have been cut and pasted from, among other unacknowledged sources, Wikipedia<\/p>\n I hope, at least, that what had been lifted from that ‘free encyclopedia’ (as it calls itself) was accurate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For it is notoriously unreliable \u2014 although that does not stop even some reputable newspapers from using it as a trusted source.<\/span><\/p>\n I discovered this when my father, the former Chancellor Nigel Lawson, died, and a number of newspaper obituaries gave his full name as ‘Nigel Thomas Lawson’.<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, my father had no middle name, ‘Thomas’ or otherwise. This bizarre error was because his Wikipedia page \u2014 or rather, one of its ‘contributors’ \u2014 had invented an additional name for him.<\/span><\/p>\n When I pointed this out to the newspapers concerned, they immediately corrected their obituaries online \u2014 and I see that Wikipedia has now, finally, followed suit.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/29\/23\/77157351-12686485-image-a-41_1698622853315.jpg\")
<\/p>\nREAD MORE:\u00a0Labour’s Rachel Reeves urged to ‘explain herself’ amid ‘plagiarism’ row over 20 examples of other people’s unattributed work found in her new book – as shadow chancellor insists they are ‘inadvertent mistakes’<\/h3>\n