Labour MPs who disagree with Sir Keir Starmer on the Israel-Hamas conflict are “scared for their jobs”, a now-independent backbencher has claimed.
Zarah Sultana, currently suspended from the party for six months after defying Sir Keir over the two-child benefit cap, was asked how many Labour colleagues agreed with her pro-Palestinian stance.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Many do, because we are seeing death of 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. We are seeing death in Lebanon and we know the UK government could take a different route where it prioritised lives, treated them all equally and ended all arms sales.
“I think it’s deeply concerning that people aren’t willing to be public about that because they are scared for their jobs.”
Nick Robinson, a Today programme presenter, said he had contacted six sitting Labour MPs but added: “None would come on the programme as they said, and I quote one of the MPs we contacted, ‘it would cost us our jobs’.”
Sir Keir in July suspended seven Labour MPs from the party after he faced an early rebellion supporting an amendment to the King’s Speech in favour of scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, ex-shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Ms Sultana and Imran Hussain were kicked out of the Parliamentary Labour Party over the Commons rebellion.
Ms Sultana suggested at the time that she was the victim of a “macho virility test” and said she “slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty” after being handed the six-month suspension.