Keir Starmer faces more party splits as Labour MP is slammed for Israel remarks

LABOUR infighting escalated today following fresh clashes between Starmer allies and rebel MPs over Israel.

Frontbencher Peter Kyle rebuked left-winger Andy McDonald for using the incendiary phrase “between the river and the sea” at a pro-Palestine rally this weekend.

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Warning it could heighten tensions, the Shadow Cabinet Minister said: “I don’t think that people should use that phrase because of the impact it has.” 

Sir Keir was under pressure to suspend Mr McDonald, who also suggested Israel was “ethnically cleansing” Palestinians in Gaza. 

The Middlesbrough MP said: “We won’t rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty.”

The phrase is seen by many Jews as demanding the total extinction of Israel – ridding it from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean sea. 

Ally John McDonnell yesterday defended Mr McDonald, insisting this was a “misrepresentation” and is about “how people can live together.”

But senior Tory MP Simon Clarke lashed out: “We all know the connotations of the phrase ‘between the river and the sea’.

“Andy McDonald knows exactly what he is doing by saying ‘Israelis and Palestinians’. He’s tiptoeing up to the line, and daring Labour to respond. Keir Starmer should.”

Mr McDonald also told thousands at the rally: “Many in our government want to tell us that this all started on October 7 and that is simply about retaliation against Hamas for the terrible crimes they committed on that day.

“But friends, we know that this is simply not the case.”

Labour tensions are already at boiling point over Sir Keir’s refusal to back a flat-out ceasefire by Israel. 

He has not flinched from his calls for a “humanitarian pause” despite a quarter of his MPs, two regional mayors and the Scottish Labour leader demanding he goes further. 

Attempting to downplay the splits, Shadow Science Secretary Mr Kyle said the diverging positions were “dancing on the head of a pin”. 

He also suggested a handful of frontbench rebels would not be sacked and that difference of opinion was actually a “strength”.

Many Labour MPs and councillors fear a backlash from millions of Muslim voters by not calling for a ceasefire. 

Mr Kyle said: “We are not thinking ‘how do we win votes?’ or what votes we will lose at a time when there is war and conflict unfolding before us, and there are human tragedies of a scale we have not seen for a very long time.”

Former Labour MP Lord Walney said: “If Labour tries to downplay scale of internal disagreement by saying a pause and a ceasefire are close to the same thing anyway, that itself would be a big weakening of the party’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself against the antisemitic horror unleashed on it.”