Israel-Hamas war: Rishi Sunak fails to endorse calls for ceasefire

Published

11 months ago

October 18, 2023

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Rishi Sunak has failed to endorse cross-party calls for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

In response to a question from the SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, the prime minster said Israel has a “right to defend itself, to protect its people and to act against terrorism and ensure that the awful attack we’ve seen from Hamas cannot happen again”.

He added: “And unlike Hamas, the Israelis, including the president, have made it clear that their armed forces will operate accordance with international law. And we will continue to urge the Israelis to take every precaution to avoid harming civilians.”

Mr Sunak’s words came after more than 30 MPs supported calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities between both sides to protect further loss of civilian life.

Thirty-seven MPs, including 26 from Labour, backed an early day motion urging Mr Sunak and his Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to “press all parties to agree to an immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities, for the release of the Israeli hostages, an end to the total siege of Gaza and for unfettered access of lifesaving humanitarian aid”.

The motion, which was also signed by Conservative MP and father of the house Sir Peter Bottomley, said that parliament “utterly condemns the massacre of Israeli civilians and taking of hostages by Hamas” and that it agrees with the United Nations Secretary-General that “these horrific acts do not justify responding with the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”

It went on to say that parliament “expresses its deep alarm at the Israeli military bombardment and total siege of Gaza and the resulting deaths and suffering” and that the “urgent priority” must be to “stop the deaths and suffering of any more civilians in Gaza and Israel”.

MPs use early day motion to put on record their views and those of their colleagues as well as to draw attention to specific events or campaigns.

Politics

Trump buys burgers with BTC, Arthur Hayes skeptical on rate cut, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 15 – 21

Published

5 hours ago

September 22, 2024

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Trump buys burgers with BTC, Arthur Hayes skeptical on rate cut, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 15 – 21

Donald Trump becomes the first former United States president to use crypto in a transaction, Arthur Hayes thoughts on rate cut: Hodler’s Digest

Politics

Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer ‘very sensible’ to accept football tickets worth thousands

Published

19 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer 'very sensible' to accept football tickets worth thousands

Lisa Nandy has said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to accept thousands of pounds worth of football tickets was “very sensible”.

The minister for culture, media and sport also said she had never accepted free clothes from a donor.

Speaking to Sky News at the start of the Labour Party conference today, the MP for Wigan said: “The problem that has arisen since [Sir Keir] became leader of the opposition and then prime minister is that for him to sit in the stands would require a huge security detail, would be disruptive for other people and it would cost the taxpayer a lot of money.

“So I think he’s taken a very sensible decision that’s not the right and appropriate thing to do, and it’s right to accept that he has to go and sit in a different area.

“But I know that he’d much rather be sitting in the stands cheering people on with the usual crowd that he’s been going to the football with for years.”

Ms Nandy also said while she has not accepted free clothes – joking “I think you can probably see that I choose my own clothes sadly” – she doesn’t “make any judgements about what other members of parliament do”.

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She said: “The only judgement I would make is if they’re breaking the rules, so they’re trying to hide what they’re doing. That’s when problems arise.

“Because the point of being open and transparent is that people can see where the relationships are, and they can then judge for themselves whether there’s been any undue influence.”

She asserted there had not been an undue influence in gifts accepted by senior Labour figures, adding: “We don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes.

“We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.

“MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.”

She added: “I don’t think there’s any suggestion here that Keir Starmer has broken any rules. I don’t think there’s any suggestion that he’s done anything wrong.

“We expect our politicians to be well turned out, we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at different events and represent the country at different events and are clothed appropriately.

“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”

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Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves said yesterday they will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes.

The announcement followed criticism of Sir Keir’s gifts from donors, which included clothing worth £16,200 and multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,485, according to the MPs’ register of interests.

The register shows Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations to the value of £2,230.

Sky News also revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.

Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP – his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.