"Embarrassing” Westminster In-Fighting Highlights Real Safety Risks For MPs

Britain’s only Palestinian MP has spoken of her “embarrassment" at the way in which Westminster turned in on itself this week when debate on a ceasefire in Gaza descended into “farce”. 

"There I am, with my family trapped in that church in Gaza, desperately seeking some sort of resolution – and all I wanted to say to them was parliament did you proud," Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who has lost family since fighting began in Gaza in October, told PoliticsHome. 

"But we just didn’t. It was a complete failure of a day."   

On Wednesday, party-on-party chaos in the House of Commons rapidly eclipsed the interests of people directly impacted by the war between Israel and Hamas, whose welfare MPs were ostensibly gathered to debate with a Scottish National Party (SNP) opposition day motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.  

So far the UK government has only gone as far as demanding a "humanitarian truce" to the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians in Palestinian-held territories since 7 October, when Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis. 134 Israeli hostages are also yet to be released by Hamas, lending grave sensitivity to international handling of the issue. 

Accusations of cynical manoeuvring by parties keen to prioritise their own political interests had already bubbled to the surface, even before Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle unleashed further havoc by breaking with parliamentary protocol to select both Labour and the government’s amendments to the SNP’s motion. He also allowed the Labour amendment to be voted on before the SNP motion, meaning the latter was effectively cancelled out in the end.

The SNP’s motion sought to escalate the UK’s position to calling for "an immediate ceasefire in