Key events
Humza Yousaf’s parents-in-law, Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged, are on a list of Britons in Gaza who have been given permission to leave through the Rafah crossing, the BBC is reporting. They were in Gaza visiting relatives when the Israel-Hamas war started. The Scottish first minister has spoken regularly about his fears for the couple’s safety, at one point saying he did not even know if they were still alive.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat refuses to back Braverman in describing pro-Palestinian demonstrations as ‘hate marches’
On Monday Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said she viewed the pro-Palestinian marches that have been taking place in London and elsehwere in Britain as “hate marches”.
In his interview on the Today programme this morning, Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, refused to endorse this description. Asked if Braverman was right to call these demonstrations “hate marches”, he replied:
The reality is that the UK is dealing with a really difficult situation at the moment where there are different people who have, for very understandable reasons, very different views on what is going on in the Middle East. They’re entitled to hold different views.
What they are not entitled to do is to make people feel vulnerable, make people feel harassed or in danger because of the way that they conduct themselves.
Asked again about Braverman’s comment, he said:
There are many different people on these marches. We’ve seen hard-left activists of the kind who sort of exploit any moment of division and trouble. And we’ve seen others who are, quite legitimately, calling for a peaceful resolution to what is frankly an awful conflict.
Savanta has published the results of a poll of Labour councillors suggesting that more than two out of five of them (43%) are dissatisfied with the party’s position on Israel-Palestine.
🚨NEW Poll of Labour Cllrs🚨
Just a third of Labour councillors say they’re satisfied with the leadership’s position on Israel-Palestine.
Position on Israel-Palestine
Satisfied 37%
Dissatisfied 43%General Election prospects
Satisfied 88%
Dissatisfied 4% pic.twitter.com/Z8yXeQOu38— Savanta UK (@Savanta_UK) November 2, 2023
And only 15% of them say Keir Starmer’s handling of this issue has made them feel more positive about the party, the poll found.
Two in five Labour councillors say that Keir Starmer’s handling of Israel-Palestine makes them feel more negatively towards the party.
More positively 15%
More negatively 43%
No difference 41% pic.twitter.com/3QW6zOmKPn— Savanta UK (@Savanta_UK) November 3, 2023
Savanta says that it interviewed 618 Labour councillors for the poll, between 27 October and 2 November, and that the results were weighted to make them “representative of all Labour councillors by region, council type, and council control”.
Chris Hopkins, director of political research at Savanta, said:
While there are plenty of Labour councillors right behind Starmer’s decision-making thus far, these results imply there is also a significant proportion who are not, putting the leadership in an awkward and uncomfortable position. Labour will be relying heavily on its base of councillors, integral to its ground campaign, at the next election, and with such a large proportion thinking more negatively towards the leadership over this issue could present a threat to Starmer’s standing among the membership at a crucial stage in the election cycle.
Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, has said it would be wrong for a pro-Palestinian march to take place in central London next week as Remembrance events are held, PA Media reports. PA says:
Tens of thousands of demonstrators are planning to take to the streets, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, on Armistice Day on Saturday 11 November.
There are fears the march could disrupt the two-minute silence commemorating the war dead and the daytime and evening Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, with the latter performance usually attended by royals.
Tugendhat told BBC Breakfast on Friday morning: “It is a moment where we remember those we lost, and I think for the whole country the Cenotaph is sacred ground and the idea that on a day like Remembrance Day you would have a protest going past it, I don’t think that is acceptable.
“That is why I have written to the mayor of London, and to Westminster Council, and to the Metropolitan police asking them to look very carefully at the powers that they have and to consider what options they have available, because personally I don’t think this is an appropriate moment for a protest.”
While the police will be responsible for on-the-day monitoring of the demonstration, the home secretary could grant them extra powers to prevent it from interrupting remembrance ceremonies.
The Public Order Act 1986 allows Suella Braverman to ban protests from certain areas if the Met believes there is a disorder risk.
The Met has vowed to use all its powers to stop the disruption of commemorations and said officers will be deployed across the capital that weekend as part of a “significant policing and security operation”.
It said protest groups have not indicated plans to march on Remembrance Sunday on 12 November but a significant demonstration is expected on the Saturday.
Demo organisers have pledged to avoid the Whitehall area where the Cenotaph war memorial – the focus of national remembrance events – is located.
Armistice Day on 11 November is the anniversary of the end of the First World War and is also known as Remembrance Day.
Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) is preparing to bus protesters from Leicester to London on the Saturday and said it expects hundreds of thousands of people to take part in the demonstration, organised by a coalition of groups.
Spokesman Ismail Patel said: “We definitely will not be at the Cenotaph. We understand the sensitivity of the date.”
Starmer says a Labour king’s speech would ‘kick off a big build’
Labour issued an overnight preview of the Keir Starmer speech, and on the basis of what they are saying it is not going to contain any new policy. In line with what Starmer said in his conference speech, he is going to present Labour as the party for building. He will say:
Britain needs this king’s speech to kick off a big build.
We have to provide the businesses, communities and people of this nation, with the conditions to succeed. A fundamental deal, that we serve the country, while you drive it forward.
The Tories can’t do this. Rishi Sunak is too weak to stand up to the blockers on his backbenchers. Too haunted by ghosts of Conservative imagination to see the country’s problems as you see them.
The king’s speech is on Tuesday. It is part of the state opening of parliament (the start of the new parliamentary session) and in the speech the king lists the government bills due to be passed in the next 12 months. In theory it is a moment for the government to show that it still has ideas, ambition, and a bit of oomph, although it does not always work out like that.
I’m afraid we’ve had to leave comments off for the moment because our moderator cover is limited, but we hope to be able to turn them on later.
Leaders of two Labour councils say Starmer should resign over refusal to call for ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war
Good morning. Keir Starmer is giving what is being billed as a major speech at lunchtime. It is his second big speech, with a media Q&A afterwards, this week, and after focusing on the Israel-Hamas war on Tuesday, today he wants to explain what would be in the king’s speech next week if Labour were in power. But his “big build” vision continues to be overshadowed by the Labour internal revolt driven by members, councillors and MPs appalled by his refusal to cause for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
In a fresh development, the leaders of two Labour councils in Lancashire, Afrasiab Anwar (Burnley) and Asjad Mahmood (Pendle) have issued a statement saying Starmer should resign. They say they are speaking on behalf of Labour councillors in their areas and Anwar says Starmer must go because he has “not stood up for Labour values”. Mahmood says Starmer should make way for a new leader “who has compassion and who speaks out against injustice and indiscriminate killing of innocent human beings”.
Inzamam Rashid from Sky News has posted the statement on X, formerly Twitter.
BREAKING: Burnley & Pendle council leaders call on Keir Starmer to resign after his decision not to back a ceasefire in Gaza.
This is a big moment, which will have huge political ripple affects amongst the Labour Party. @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/EP1ZMf5Rlq
— Inzamam Rashid (@inzyrashid) November 2, 2023
In an interview on the Today programme, Anwar explained why he thought Starmer’s cause for a “humanitarian pause”, rather than a ceasefire, was not enough. He said:
The reason that a humanitarian pause is not good enough is because obviously the aid will get in but then the bombing, the attacks will start again. What we’re seeing is that these innocent civilians have got nowhere to escape to.
The whole international community came out and said that Israel has the right to defend itself, just as any other nation does, but it’s got to be proportional and within international law.
The number of lives that we’re seeing lost, the number of people, innocent civilians, who are losing their lives on both sides, we need to call it out and there needs to be a stop to it.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: The Scottish government holds a briefing on its latest paper on the independence, focusing on migration.
12.20pm: Keir Starmer gives a speech at the North East Chamber of Commerce’s president’s lunch.
1.30pm: Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, holds a press conference with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles (also Australia’s deputy PM) in Derby, when they are on a visit related to the Aukus submarine deal.
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