The Guardian<\/em> quoted a senior Labour figure saying, \u201cIt is a big fall in just two months. People were surprised, even taken aback.\u201d It added that Labour insiders believe the fall is primarily a result of \u201canger among Muslim and other Labour supporters over Keir Starmer\u2019s position on Gaza\u201d and his refusal over several months to call for an immediate ceasefire.<\/p>\nLabour leader Keir Starmer came under heavy criticism soon after the conflict erupted. On October 11, four days after Hamas killed Israeli citizens and Israel responded with an aggressive campaign of air attacks and blockades, Starmer gave an interview in which he said Israel had the \u201cright\u201d to cut off power and water from Gaza.<\/p>\n
The party\u2019s refusal to call for a ceasefire had also led to the resignation of at least 70 Labour councillors, triggering a loss of control in four councils.<\/p>\n
The Labour Muslim Network, a British campaign group associated with the party, in February warned of the potential loss of support from Muslim voters if the party does not alter its stance on the Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n
In a statement, it said, \u201c\u2026the Labour Party\u2019s response has been unacceptable and deeply offensive to Muslims across Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuslim voters have been watching and are now sending a clear message \u2014 they will not support any political party that does not fervently oppose the crimes committed against the people of Gaza. The Labour leadership must change paths now or risk losing the support of the Muslim community for a generation,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Mr Starmer has faced rebellions over the party\u2019s stance on Gaza from his own MPs as well as frontbench resignations. In November, 10 frontbenchers resigned or were removed from his team after voting for a Scottish National Party motion calling for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Reports suggest it has also faced anger from green supporters over its decision to drop a commitment to spend \u00a328bn if it wins the general election on its green investment plan.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON: The United Kingdom\u2019s Labour party reported a loss of membership by 23,000 over its Gaza policy and environmental messaging, new figures revealed. Official figures showed that memberships fell from 390,000 in January to 366,604 last week, though the party is leading in opinion polls and widely believed to win in the next general election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/310853094ef7f63.png?r=085413","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}