Hundreds of people marched through Keir Starmer’s constituency and protested outside his Camden office on Saturday over the Labour leader’s failure to call for a ceasefire.
The action was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which planned more than 100 local demonstrations across the country on Saturday rather than holding a national march in the capital.
In Camden Town, hundreds marched through the drizzle and called for a ceasefire. At two points, the crowd briefly chanted “Keir Starmer is a wasteman” and many held placards depicting the Labour leader. Cars beeped and cafe workers left work to clap and chant their support as the demonstration advanced up the busy high street.
Claudia Manchanda, 52, is on palliative care. She joined the demonstration despite having had chemotherapy two days ago. “I want to be on the right side of history. I don’t want to be complicit,” she said.
“I’m here because I’m so upset, disgusted and horrified by our politicians because they don’t deem a ceasefire to be the most urgent thing.”
She is a local constituent and has voted for Labour previously. “I’ve been really disappointed. I don’t see them as a viable opposition to the Tories,” she said.
“Camden has spoken. We don’t want genocide. We care about babies and civilians. We see the crimes against humanity.”
Jacquie Woods, 59, retired, said: “I’m a Labour supporter. I’ve voted Labour all my life. Starmer is complicit in the genocide that is going on in Palestine.
“There’s children dying every single day in Palestine and the world is not listening.”
Woods grew up in Northern Ireland. “I’m an Irish Catholic. I was born in 1964 and lived in an occupied territory for most of my childhood. I witnessed awful stuff as a consequence. It was a lot less than what is happening in Palestine but it was a similar situation. Indiscriminate murder by the state,” she said.
Starmer has faced sustained criticism for his handling of the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in Gaza after sustained bombardment from Israeli forces since 7 October. On Wednesday, 56 of the 198 Labour MPs in parliament opposed the party leadership and voted for an explicit immediate ceasefire. Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence, was among 10 frontbenchers who either resigned or were fired from the shadow cabinet.
In a statement after the vote, Starmer said he regretted that party colleagues had not backed his position but later said he was more focused on the plight of people in Gaza than managing the splits within Labour.
Fakrul Islam, 53, who is self-employed and lives locally, attended the demonstration with his family. His daughter, who did not want to be named, said: “We want a ceasefire. People are dying and we are against it. The children did nothing wrong; they are not the terrorists.”
Michael Kalmanvitz, 72, who is retired, attended the protest as part of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. “Thousands and thousands of Jewish people are coming out in support of Palestine, both here and in the US. There have been enormous actions to promote a ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.
“Judaism is a religion; Zionism is a political movement. They are not the same.”
Quoting Marek Edelman, a leader of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, he said: “To be a Jew, you must be with the oppressed, never the oppressor. We see there are many Jewish people like us.”
Elsewhere, sit-in protests were held at major train stations across the UK. In London, about 100 protesters sat in the centre of Waterloo station and chanted “ceasefire now”. A large police presence soon arrived and protesters were removed from the station, with at least two demonstrators carried from the scene. The British Transport Police (BTP) said at least five people were arrested.
In Manchester, footage shared on social media showed a small crowd sitting on the floor in Victoria station, while the force confirmed another group of about 25 people had done the same at Leeds station shortly after 2pm.
