Lancashire council leaders call for Sir Keir Starmer to resign over his Gaza stance

The Labour leaders of two councils in Lancashire have called for Sir Keir Starmer to resign - over his position on the middle east conflict.

Burnley leader Afrasiab Anwar and Councillor Asjad Mahmood, the leader of Pendle Council, have both issued a statement, criticising the Labour Leader's decision not to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a joint statement, Anwar said: "I and colleagues across Burnley over the last few weeks have seen the sad loss of people including young children in Palestine and Israel and this has to stop immediately.

"I joined the Labour Party because of the values of standing up and speaking out against injustices across the world. Sadly, Keir Starmer has not stood up for Labour values, hence why we are calling upon him to step down."

Mahmood went on to say: "I and my fellow labour colleagues have seen distressing loss of lives on both sides of this conflict and have been putting pressure on the party leader to calls for a ceasefire"

"Unfortunately, he has failed to listen, and we ask he consider his position and resign to allow someone to lead our party who has compassion and speaks out against injustice and indiscriminate killings of innocent human beings"

Sir Keir Starmer has defended his stance. At this stage in the conflict, he argued that Hamas would be "emboldened" by a ceasefire and start preparing for future violence immediately.

A humanitarian pause is the "only credible approach" that would see "the urgent alleviation of Palestinian suffering", Sir Keir said.