East Ham’s MP votes for immediate and complete ceasefire in the region, whilst West Ham’s MP abstained calling for a humanitarian “cessation of violence”.
Sir Stephen Timms, the MP for East Ham, was one of 56 Labour parliamentary rebels who defied the Labour Party leadership on 14 November calling for an immediate and complete ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza and Palestine.
Newham’s other MP, Lyn Brown, who is Labour’s Shadow Africa Minister was in Kenya at the time of the vote, abstained on the crucial vote in a pairing arrangement with a conservative MP also taking part in her mission.
Brown said her office had received an “unprecedented volume of correspondence” from local residents and others on the issue.
In a comprehensive 2,000-word response to requests that she vote for an immediate ceasefire she said, in line with Labour policy, she supported a humanitarian “cessation of violence” that could lead to an enduring ceasefire, but she concluded with
an emphatic message: “I believe the horrors being inflicted on the people of Gaza must end now.”
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