There are few stronger examples of why it is necessary to have Labour MPs from the left of the party than the moral clarity shown over arms sales to Israel in January, in contrast to the foot-dragging of Labour’s top team.
Simon Fletcher
Simon Fletcher writes on the mounting calls to suspend arms exports to Israel – and why Starmer must stop dragging his feet.
Following the International Court of Justice ruling in January that Israel must “take all measures within its power” to desist from killing Palestinians in contravention of the genocide convention, and to prevent and punish the incitement of genocide and facilitate the provision of “urgent basic services”, the Labour MP Jon Trickett tweeted:
‘the ICJ ruling means the Britain must cease granting arms export licences for weapons to Israel pending the court’s final determination UK arms export licensing Rule 2c: licences must “not grant (licenses) if there is risk …of a violation of international humanitarian law”.’
Trickett’s intervention over arms exports underlines the importance of having Labour MPs from the left of the party who are willing to take a clear stand when the party’s leadership is failing. Earlier the same month Trickett had tabled Early Day Motion (EDM) 255 calling on the British government ‘to publish in full the legal advice it has received from its law officers regarding the situation in Gaza, particularly in the run-up to UN votes, and the legality of the UK export licensing of arms to the Israel.’ Other Labour MPs have also raised the question of arms to Israel, including Zarah Sultana who tabled an EDM on 7 February which called ‘on the UK Government to demand an immediate ceasefire and suspend all arms exports to Israel.’
In the aftermath of Israel’s attack that killed seven World Kitchen Central aid workers, pressure is growing for the suspension of arms sales to Israel. Thousands of innocent people have been killed since Israel began its siege, bombardment and incursion in Gaza, but those deaths have not aroused the same degree of pressure for ending arms to the Israeli state as the latest atrocity against the killed aid workers. Two things have happened. One, horror at what Israel did to the WKC workers. Two, the release of a recording of the Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the House of Commons select committee on foreign affairs, who revealed that British government legal advice existed that showed Israel had broken the law:
“The Foreign Office has received official legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law but the government has not announced it.
“They have not said it, they haven’t stopped arms exports. They have done a few very small sanctions on Israeli settlers and everyone internationally is agreed that settlers are illegal, that they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing, and the ways in which they have continued and the money that’s been put in.”
Polling today shows that among all voters in the UK a majority of 56% to 17% are in favour of a ban on the export of arms and spare parts. By a majority of 59% to 12% voters say Israel is violating human rights in Gaza.
Whereas pressure has built up for an end to arms sales to Israel the Labour leadership once again has had to be dragged to its position. Over the last 24 hours senior Labour shadow cabinet on the broadcast media round – such as Pat McFadden – refused to say that Israel was in breach of humanitarian law and equally refused to support an end to arms sales. As support for ending arms exports grew, including from Tory MPs, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy amended the party’s position on Wednesday afternoon, saying that the government’s legal advice should be published ‘so that we are clear on whether Israel has contravened international humanitarian law and therefore, arm sales should be suspended.’ It is part of a pattern over Gaza in which Labour’s leadership finally arrives positions far too late, if at all, and after opinion has moved far ahead of it. The case for ending arms sales to Israel is overwhelming but Labour has stubbornly tried to avoid saying it.
There are few stronger examples of why it is necessary to have Labour MPs from the left of the party such as Trickett et al than the moral clarity shown over arms sales to Israel in January, in contrast to the foot-dragging of Labour’s top team.
If the problem of its line on Gaza exists at the level of the leader’s office and shadow cabinet it does not stop there. Between the political leadership and the party’s National Executive Committee there is a mutually-supportive culture within the Labour right over Gaza. The right-wing Labour First group – whose Secretary is Labour NEC member Luke Akehurst – is the leadership’s favoured internal factional grouping. Via its ‘Labour To Win’ alliance it holds key positions in the party’s apparatus. Following Pat McFadden’s failure to support an end to arms sales to Israel, Luke Akehurst tweeted, simply, ‘Good.’
That position may now actually be superseded by events but it is a sign of a right wing culture threading through between the party’s representative structures and the shadow cabinet that is simultaneously bad for internal politics and bad for wider politics.
- This article was originally published by Simon Fletcher’s Modern Left on 3 April, 2024.
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- You can view of a list of Labour representatives who have called for a ceasefire here.
