Keir Starmer has said he will back calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East conflict once Israeli hostages are released and Hamas can no longer mount terror attacks.
In a major speech this morning, the Labour leader repeatedly said he did not back calls - including from many of his own frontbenchers - for an end to hostilities “now”.
But he told an audience at Chatham House in London that he would be willing to change his stance in the future.
Starmer has been under mounting pressure over his response to the conflict, which began on October 7 when Hamas fighters entered Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking hundreds hostage.
He has consistently supported Israel’s right to defend itself, despite thousands of Palestinian civilians being killed in retaliatory strikes on Gaza.
Dismissing the growing calls for a ceasefire, Starmer has instead said he supports “humanitarian pauses” to allow desperately-needed aid to get to those who need it.
In an apparent shift in his stance this morning, Starmer said: “Over time, the facts on the ground will inevitably change in relation to both hostages being rescued and Hamas’s capability to carry out attacks like we saw on October 7.
“And we must move to cessation of fighting as quickly as possible because the reality is that neither the long-term security of Israel nor long-term justice for Palestine can be delivered by bombs and bullets.
“Open-ended military action, action without a clear and desired political outcome is ultimately futile.
“This needs to begin now because a political agreement – however unlikely that seems today, however painful the first steps are to take – is the only way to resolve this conflict, once and for all.”
Starmer also insisted that collective responsibility rules had not been “suspended” in Labour despite his reluctance to sack the shadow ministers defying him by calling for a ceasefire.
He said: “Of course we have collective responsibility, it’s my job to make sure we have collective responsibility. It needs to be done with an eye on the context and what we are facing.”
As many as 40 Labour frontbenchers are known to be at odds with Starmer’s position on the conflict, with speculation mounting that some of them may even resign their positions.
Labour mayors Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham, as well as Anas Sarwar, the leader of the party in Scotland, have also joined the calls for a ceasefire.