LABOUR BRACED FOR GAZA DEMO
Party preparing for mass protest outside SEC conference
SCOTTISH Labour is preparing for a mass protest outside its party conference this week on Keir Starmer’s position on the Gaza conflict.
Thousands of protesters could descend on Glasgow over the UK Labour leader’s opposition to an immediate ceasefire in the war between terror group Hamas and Israel.
Starmer will appear at the conference at the SEC as opinion polls show he is on course for Downing Street.
However, he has faced a backlash over his Gaza stance.
He initially said Israel had the right to withhold water and power from Gaza but later said this was not what he meant.
He has also called for a “sustainable” ceasefire rather than an immediate one.
Part of the challenge over the weekend will be ensuring there
are no security breaches. Starmer was confronted by pro-Palestinian protesters at Glasgow Central Station in December. And protesters disrupted a speech by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in Rutherglen last month. Footage has also emerged of Scots Labour MP Ian Murray being
confronted at a Labour meeting. Starmer and Sarwar are close but the war has created a rift.
Sarwar backs an immediate ceasefire and was angered by Starmer’s initial comments. The Record obtained leaked details of a meeting of MSPs and the Labour Muslim Network on October 16, at which Sarwar
thanked the Network for trying to get Labour into a more “sensible” position.
He said of Starmer: “That humanity and empathy is, if we are being blunt about it, what has been missing from some of the statement, which has caused so much of the hurt. Where it feels as if there’s an inconsistency, or a dehumanising, or not seeing the value of one life to be equal to another life.”
Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer said: “We know that many Scottish Labour members, probably a majority, support an immediate and permanent ceasefire. They should join this protest and call on their party’s leadership to push for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Police Scotland and Scottish Labour have been contacted. ●SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has written to PM Rishi Sunak and Starmer urging them to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza amid concern over a planned Israeli invasion of Rafah.
Flynn said it would “amount to waging a war in the largest refugee camp in the world.”