“Disaster averted” was the appraisal of one shadow cabinet minister. Keir Starmer began the day on course for political defeat. By the end, parliament had adopted Labour’s position on the war in Gaza as its own.
At the centre of events was the House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle. His decision to allow a vote on Labour’s amendment to an SNP motion on an immediate Gaza ceasefire – following a meeting with Starmer – caused bedlam reminiscent of Liz Truss’s downfall. By allowing his former party’s amendment, the Speaker indirectly prevented the SNP’s motion from being called, on a day the party was supposed to control the order paper. The Scottish nationalists were inflamed. At one intemperate moment the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn was told to take his seat. He proclaimed: “I will not sit!”
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