Yesterday began with the news that Labour supports an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. But there are questions over whether this new policy is actually new. As the shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said, Labour has been calling for the fighting to stop for some time. Meanwhile, Labour’s appeal for an immediate ceasefire in an amendment to today’s SNP motion (which will call for the same) contains the caveat that “Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence”. Labour states this is simply the definition of ceasefire, which requires both sides to lay down arms.
But it’s unclear whether it also entails that one of the conditions for ceasefire is the elimination of Hamas’s capacity for aggression, not least because the motion goes on to say that “Israelis have the right to the assurance that the horror of 7 October cannot happen again”. To make matters more ambiguous, Lammy called yesterday for a “lasting and sustainable immediate ceasefire”.
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