Labour’s biggest backers – the trade unions – have issued a stern warning to party leader Keir Starmer over his reluctance to demand an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Depending on the firmness of their resolve, this could create a serious problem for the Labour leader who has also been urged to expel several MPs for supporting pro-Palestine activism.

Clearly he cannot support the unions without alienating the anti-Palestine mob, and he can’t expel the pro-Palestine MPs without alienating the unions.

Union leaders have told Keir Starmer his position on Gaza risks alienating millions of Britons, telling the Labour leader their members are increasingly angry about his refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.

“Several people at the meeting were pretty clear with Starmer,” said one person with knowledge of what happened at the meeting. “They told him, ‘Your position on Gaza is alienating working people, you are out of step with the majority’.”

Starmer’s response to the Israel-Gaza war has been a source of tension between the Labour leader and many of his MPs, councillors and members for weeks.

Last year he gave an interview in which he appeared to suggest Israel was within its rights to withhold water and power from Gaza. Even though he has since rowed back from that position, many of his colleagues and supporters remain angry that he has not done more to show sympathy with the plight of people in Gaza.

The story says Starmer’s spokesperson ignored a request for comment – and this suggests everything we need to know about Starmer’s position.

It seems he’s sticking to his believe that the unions have nowhere else to go but his party, so all the protesting they want to do will not do them any good and he’ll carry on kowtowing to Israel in spite of them.

He’ll probably go ahead and push out those pro-Palestine Action Labour MPs and then turn to the unions and ask: “What are you going to do now?”

It will be a big mistake, though.

The unions might not withdraw their support and/or funding (which is the only power they have over Starmer) because they have proved themselves to be toothless in the past.

But individual union members are a different matter.

Starmer’s complacent belief that voters don’t have anywhere else to go may have a nasty encounter with reality at the forthcoming general election, when workers will be able to choose for themselves who they support.

If that happens, he will only have himself to blame.

Source: Unions tell Starmer of members’ anger over Gaza ceasefire position | Labour | The Guardian

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