Labour Hopes To Avert Ceasefire Vote Showdown With New Gaza Amendment

Labour will order its MPs to abstain on the SNP's Gaza ceasefire motion on Wednesday, instead whipping its MPs to back an amendment calling for "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza in a bid to avoid a showdown with its own MPs.

PoliticsHome understands Labour will be ordering its MPs who want a ceasefire in Gaza back their own amendment rather than support the SNP's motion. Labour's amendment will be voted on after the SNPs motion. 

A Labour source saidit's "not yet clear" whether MPs who vote for SNP's motion will lose the whip, but PoliticsHome understands there are Labour MPs who are considering voting for both motions. Last month, PoliticsHome reported patience was wearing thin in the whips office with Labour rebels who broke the whip – particularly those involved in voting with the SNP on a previous ceasefire vote. 

Key differences between the party's motions include Labour's amendment including criticism of Hamas, as well as specifying any ceasefire as "humanitarian" – whereas the SNP's does not. The SNP's motion also references "collective punishment" of the Palestinian people where Labour's does not. 

The SNP's motion – which comes ahead of Israel's planned assault on Rafah which is hosting over a million displaced Gazans fleeing the fighting – has been widely seen by figures in Labour as an attempt to cause division in the parliamentary Labour party after a previous SNP ceasefire motion triggered a string of frontbench resignations. 

In November, multiple Labour frontbenchers, including senior Labour MP Jess Phillips, resigned from their posts in order to back another SNP motion in a demonstration of the strength of feeling among some MPs on the issue. During the Scottish Labour conference last weekend,