Get real: there will be no ceasefire in Gaza

SNP-Labour bickering over the difference between a ceasefire and a humanitarian pause is an insult to the dying

There’s nothing the SNP like better than to portray the Scottish Labour Party as a powerless “branch office” - supine pawns of “London Labour”. They hope to demonstrate this by exposing the rift between the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and his UK boss, Keir Starmer, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, has tabled amendment to the King’s Speech calling for a ceasefire. As the third largest party in Westminster they can expect the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle to call the division on Wednesday.

Sir Keir has of course refused to endorse the call for a ceasefire from leaders like President Macron of France. Labour policy is to call instead for “humanitarian pauses”. But the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar, has inconveniently called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities”. Sarwar, who is normally on the same political wing as Starmer, has also criticised the Labour leader’s lack of “empathy” and “humanity”. In other words, Sir Keir hasn’t criticised Israel strongly enough or used emotive phrases about a Palestinian life being equal to and Israeli one.

Starmer has also had dire warnings that Muslim voters may abandon their traditional party of choice and damage his chances of entering Number Ten next year. This is going to be a difficult week for the Labour Party which has suffered deep divisions in the past over foreign wars - not least over Iraq in 2003. Could history be about to repeat itself…?