Labour's double dissent on Israel arms 'gesture' and winter fuel payments

Day one of a new term at Westminster and Sir Keir Starmer was already facing double trouble from Labour MPs.

First, a partial arms export ban on Israel, which opponents claimed was a sop to pro-Gaza Labour left-wingers, ended up pleasing no-one.

And then, predictably, at a packed Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, senior cabinet ministers faced a marathon grilling on winter fuel payments.

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In a Commons statement, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the suspension of 30 out of the UK's 350 arms export licences to Israel.

There was, he said, "a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law".

But he stressed it wasn't a "blanket ban" or an arms embargo and said UK arms exports to Israel only make up 1% of the total.

So is it just a gesture, then? It looks like it, according to MPs of all parties.

That was certainly the conclusion of Labour's political opponents.

The shadow foreign secretary, Andrew Mitchell, said it "has all the appearance of something designed to satisfy Labour's backbenches".

Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said it was a "shameful gesture to appease the hard left".

And earlier, in the Commons exchanges after Mr Lammy's statement, the DUP's Sammy Wilson told him it was a bad decision he'd live to regret.

Mr Wilson said: "I believe that it is, unfortunately, the result of the pressure that Labour MPs have felt in their constituencies from pro-Gaza protests."

Mr Lammy replied: "I've not gone as far as Margaret Thatcher went in 1982. Governments of both types, including under Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat, and Gordon Brown, have had to make these difficult decisions."

A fair point. And, to be fair, Mr Lammy did admit to Tory grandee Sir Julian Lewis rather sheepishly: "I've made this decision with regret. It's in sorrow, not in anger."

From the Labour left on the benches behind Mr Lammy, Kim Johnson called for sanctions, which she said the US has imposed. Andy McDonald called for "further steps".

And Apsana Begum demanded: "Will the UK government ensure that the UK is not complicit in Israel's war crimes, and will they suspend all arms sales to Israel?"

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So if Mr Lammy's move was designed to "satisfy" or "appease" the Labour left or was "the result of pressure" from "pro-Gaza protests", it hasn't worked.

Later, at least the mood upstairs at the PLP was "collegiate" - according to one senior MP - as backbenchers bombarded ministers with questions about means-testing winter fuel payments for pensioners.

But the presence of big hitters Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner, as well as work and pensions secretary and education secretary Bridget Phillipson, revealed the jitters in the Labour high command.

The chancellor, who's facing a potential mutiny on the fuel payments axe, told Sky News - unconvincingly - as she left the meeting that the PLP was "united". Really?

Like Israel-Gaza, the fuel payments discontent among Labour MPs will run and run for weeks and possibly months. And this was only day one of the new term.