In the lead up to the ceasefire vote on Wednesday Sir Keir Starmer met MPs in small groups and one-on-one to try to persuade them not to break ranks.
He urged them to support Labour’s amendment, calling for longer “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza and taking steps to an “immediate cessation of fighting”.
But many MPs, under pressure from constituents horrified at reports of civilians trapped in an increasingly desperate situation, felt it was time to send a stronger signal than Sir Keir was offering.
Even those who had maintained a disciplined silence until now were preparing to back the Scottish National Party amendment urging an immediate ceasefire.
Some of the conversations between the Labour leader and his MPs were tense. Senior figures took the chance to set out their concerns over his stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict face-to-face.
They expressed fears that the party was, in their eyes, not doing enough to show Muslim voters it was on their side. One MP even told Sir Keir privately that they didn’t feel safe as a Muslim in the party.
The Labour leader is said to have apologised to the MP but explained that his focus had been on doing all he could to land on a policy that was right for everyone.
A Labour source refused to get into the details of the meetings, but said engagement between Sir Keir and his party would continue with the aim of supporting colleagues.
In the end, Sir Keir faced his most significant Commons rebellion yet on Wednesday, with 10 resignations from his frontbench and more than 50 MPs going against the whip.
The first to stand up and publicly announce she was breaking the whip was Naz Shah who is said to have been still writing what would ultimately be her resignation speech from the Commons chamber, minutes before standing up to speak.
Eight shadow ministers and two shadow ministerial aides broke ranks including Jess Phillips Paula Barker, Rachel Hopkins, Afzal Khan, Sarah Owen, Yasmin Qureshi, and Andy Slaughter.
This rebellion had been a long time coming and the eventual number of frontbenchers who resigned was lower than senior Labour figures predicted.
But Sir Keir is said to have privately expressed frustration at high-profile Labour figures who have called for a ceasefire – something he has argued is not possible under the current circumstances.
His anger was mirrored by other shadow Cabinet figures, with one suggesting the Labour rebels who quit over the Israel-Gaza ceasefire vote have been accused of stoking backlash aimed at colleagues who followed the party line.
One shadow cabinet minister praised Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood for holding firm and trying to mediate between different voices in the party despite coming under intense pressure.
And they criticised shadow ministers who quit and then “rubbed it in our faces” with broadcast interviews after the vote – suggesting it may have fuelled abuse that some shadow Cabinet ministers have faced both on X, formerly Twitter, and from constituents since the vote.
MPs who did not vote for a ceasefire have been sharing long letters to their constituents detailing their reason for not backing the SNP amendment.
Some in areas with a high count of Muslim voters were already facing backlash on X on Thursday, and protests in their constituencies.
The shadow Cabinet minister also suggested too many MPs are not ready for the demands of government: “They need to realise that they are going to have to vote for things that are not popular with their constituents” once in office.
Sources around Sir Keir have consistently said the Labour leader believes it is important to act like a government in waiting, not a campaigning party, which is why he has so carefully mirrored the stance of the UK and its allies.
But, with the situation in Gaza continuously deteriorating, what comes next?
Senior MP and former minister Margaret Hodge suggested that Sir Keir could change his stance in the coming weeks – telling Times Radio that it was a “very fast-moving, changing situation” and “it may well be in a week or two we take a different view”.
She added: “In the motion that Labour put forward we talked about a full cessation of fighting, you can compare that to a ceasefire and argue where’s the difference in that.”
But a Labour source said that Sir Keir was not about to do a screeching u-turn and call for an outright ceasefire.
“Of course as the situation changes then the asks might expand/increase but it wouldn’t be right to suggest there’s any movement on that core question.”
