JESS Phillips has become the most high-profile Labour MP to quit the frontbench over Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza, after voting in the Commons for a ceasefire.
MPs voted 293 to 125, majority 168, to reject the SNP’s King’s Speech amendment calling for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Labour confirmed eight shadow ministers "left the frontbench" on Wednesday evening, and two Parliamentary Private Secretaries, making ten frontbenchers in total.
The eight shadow ministers that joined Phillips are Paula Barker, Rachel Hopkins, Afzal Khan, Sarah Owen, Yasmin Qureshi, Naz Shah and Andy Slaughter.
The Parliamentary private secretaries are Dan Carden and Mary Foy.
Qureshi became the first Labour frontbencher on Wednesday to resign her position to vote with the SNP when she quit as shadow minister for women and equalities.
Phillips said it was with a “heavy heart” that she quit the Labour frontbench because of the party’s stance on Gaza.
In a resignation letter, the Birmingham Yardley MP wrote: “This week has been one of the toughest weeks in politics since I entered Parliament.
“I have tried to do everything that I could to make it so that this was not the outcome, but it is with a heavy heart that I will be leaving my post in the shadow Home Office team.
“On this occasion I must vote with my constituents, my head, and my heart which has felt as if it were breaking over the last four weeks with the horror of the situation in Israel and Palestine.
“I can see no route where the current military action does anything but put at risk the hope of peace and security for anyone in the region now and in the future.”
