Sir Keir Starmer said Jeremy Corbyn’s “days as a Labour MP are over” as he condemned the former leader’s repeated refused to call Hamas a terrorist organisation in an interview.
The Labour leader said his predecessor – stripped of the party whip in 2020 – “won’t stand as a Labour MP at the next election or any election”.
Mr Corbyn had been repeatedly asked on Talk TV’s Piers Morgan Uncensored programme this week if he thought Hamas was a terror group.
But the independent Islington North MP, an outspoken critic of Israel, continually avoided the question and attempted to move the conversation on.
Mr Corbyn later told Times Radio: “Of course it [7 October] was a terror attack and it was an awful attack.”
Sir Keir – who served in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – said he was “taken aback and shocked” by the left-wing stalwart’s refusal to describe Hamas as a terror outfit in the TalkTV interview.
“It reaffirmed in me why it is so important to me and to this changed Labour party that Jeremy Corbyn does not sit as a Labour MP and will not be a candidate at the next election for the Labour party,” he continued. “That is how far we have changed as the Labour party.”
Asked whether Mr Corbyn’s interview with Morgan would preclude him from standing for Labour again, Sir Keir: “He won’t stand as a Labour MP at the next election or any election. His days as a Labour MP are over. We have a changed party.”
Hamas was responsible for the 7 October assault on Israel – killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 others hostage in raids that have sparked a bloody war in the Middle East. The Gaza rulers are proscribed as a terror group in the UK and support for them is banned.
Keir Starmer said Jeremy Corbyn would not return to the party
(PA Archive)
Mr Corbyn had the Labour whip in parliament removed in October 2020 over his response to the equalities watchdog report on antisemitism in the party during his tenure as leader. He sits as an Independent MP but remains a Labour member.
Sir Keir faced a bruising week on the issue of the Israel-Hamas war – suffering a major rebellion in the Commons against the party’s position of refusing to back a ceasefire.
The Labour leader – who has backed Rishi Sunak’s call for a “humanitarian pause” – had put his MPs on a three-line whip not to vote for a SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.
But 56 of his lawmakers defied the order – with 10 shadow ministers and parliamentary aides among them. The frontbenchers, including Jess Phillips, quit or were sacked as a result.
Sir Keir insisted that there is “no unconditional support for Israel” as it fights back against Hamas, and urged that civilians and hospitals “must be protected” and international law upheld.
Labour rebels who quit or sacked over a rebellion could still join Sir Keir’s top team after the election, the shadow defence secretary John Healey said.
Asked whether rebelling would rule them out of a ministerial post in a Labour government, Mr Healey said: “That’s for well down the track” before insisted there was a “deeper unity” in the Labour party.
Other former shadow ministers now on the back benches include Yasmin Qureshi, Afzal Khan, Paula Barker, Rachel Hopkins, Sarah Owen, Naz Shah and Andy Slaughter.
Parliamentary private secretaries Dan Carden and Mary Foy, who had been working with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, joined them in stepping down.
It comes as Pro-Palestine protest organisers prepare for a national day of action on Saturday, instead of a large march in central London.
The direct action will take the form of more than 100 smaller rallies at various locations across the UK. Previous weekends have seen thousands of protesters and counter-protesters converging on the capital.
A spokeswoman for organisers Stop The War Coalition said that Saturday’s rallies come ahead of a national demonstration planned for the following Saturday.