Keir Starmer defends his delayed call for a ceasefire in Gaza, says ‘a serious politician’ would have never called for a ceasefire early on in the war

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer explains why he is shifting his stance on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, despite being against it for the first four months of the war. ‘To say to Israel immediately, immediately after October the 7th, you cannot go and get your hostages back for using force wasn't something which a serious politician was ever going to say,’ he said. After losing significant support in the UK, the Labour Party leader began calling for a ceasefire four months into Israel’s relentless and brutal war on Gaza. Starmer criticised early calls for ceasefire as beneficial only to Hamas, but now, with over 31,000 dead and a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah, he says ‘now is the time for a ceasefire’.