Former Labour leader challenges Starmer to support inquiry or out himself by blocking it
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has brought forward a ‘ten minute rule’ motion to Parliament for a full, independent and public inquiry into the UK government’s collaboration in Israel’s genocidal slaughter, maiming and starvation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians and its endless war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The ‘ten minute rule’ process means that Corbyn and an MP opposing it, if one can be found even among the parliamentary Israel lobby willing to pu his or her face to it, can debate the bill, which is scheduled for 4 June. The bill will not automatically become law, but puts pressure on the government to arrange the inquiry and, if Starmer moves to block it, forces him to out himself and the fact, which is already clear given the UK’s arms shipments, spy flights over Gaza for Israel and immunity provided to Israeli war criminals, that he has plenty to hide. The full bill reads:
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I”m guessing that both the Tories and Labour will simply ignore this motion.
‘Guessing’??
INDEPENDENTS, GREENS, PLAID AND THE NATIONALISTS will not ignore Jeremy on this. I
t’s likely to be the biggest challenge that the Gov has faced yet. The McSweeney clique will be feeling exposed if some Lab MPs respond to Jeremy’s motion honestly.
“I”m guessing that both the Tories and Labour will simply ignore this motion.”
Is that a tacit recognition that both of these parties are part of the same uni-party we see?
There is a very slim chance that what we might call a “duopoly” is in fact two sides of the same coin, with the rest of the “coins” pretty much of the same stripe.
What has already been dubbed in some quarters as’The Single Transferable Party’.
It won’t get to see the light of day.
Maybe you’re right kelticgirl. Other than the Independents, SNP, Green. and Lib Dem support, the key will **Public and Media Attention**: Raising public awareness and media attention can put pressure on MPs and the government to support the bill.
Meanwhile, Gary Lineker is not the only individual in the football world who is being cancelled:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/may/16/former-kit-manager-sues-arsenal-sacked-for-anti-israel-comments-mark-bonnick
A former Arsenal kit manager is suing the club for unfair dismissal, alleging he was discriminated against because of his opposition to Israel. Mark Bonnick, who worked at the club from the early 2000s, alleges his dismissal was “discriminatory” owing to it being based on his “philosophical anti-Zionist belief”.
“Bonnick was suspended and then sacked in December 2024 after Arsenal were alerted to a series of posts he had made on social media referring to Israel’s war in Gaza. Bonnick says that his posts were not antisemitic but motivated by legitimate anti-Zionist beliefs.
In his legal submission, Bonnick refers to five replies on X in November and December last year, including: “Yes it is all about Jewish supremacy & not wanting to share the land Ethnic cleansing”; “Why should they be protected anymore than any other community? Some see this as the problem Jewish communities thinking they should be put before others”; “What about the Jews that attack Christians?”
Bonnick’s posts also said “Hamas offered to release all hostages in October. Zionist Israel refused. Persecution complex”; and on that offer he also posted: “You abandoned them … Refused to bring them home … Your silence was deafening … Now you want others to scream … Morals integrity honesty none … Mark of Cain.”
Bonnick says his reference to “Mark of Cain” was a quote from a statement made by Israel’s then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, the previous month.
Bonnick told the Guardian he was taking the legal action in an attempt to restore his reputation, which he argues has been sullied by allegations of antisemitism. According to Bonnick’s submission Arsenal’s investigation into the posts did not accuse him of antisemitism but said they could be “perceived as inflammatory or offensive” and had “brought the club into disrepute”. Bonnick is seeking damages and reinstatement.
Bonnick said: “I want them to acknowledge what they’ve done to me is wrong and that they should not have sacked me. I believe in standing up for what’s right, especially when you see injustice, and I feel strongly against what Israel is doing in Gaza.
“I’ve tweeted on various issues, including football, Brexit, racism, knife crime and politics. It only became a problem when I tweeted about Israel, which led to a pile-on online and people contacting the club.”
Ten Minute Rule motions are held in the main chamber of the House of Commons immediately after question time, around 12:45pm on most Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Whichever MP has reserved the slot presents their bill and is entitled to speak for 10 minutes to convince the house of its merit. After the 10 minutes have passed, another MP may speak for a further 10 minutes to oppose the bill. The Speaker then calls a voice vote to decide whether the bill should be allowed a second reading, to debate the bill at a later date. The Speaker will divide the house for a recorded count of votes if there is some opposition. However, the majority of Ten Minute Rule motions are not objected to, and are allowed to proceed without any debate at this stage; this is because MPs have not yet been able to review the bill’s content.
When a Ten Minute Rule motion passes, the bill is added to the register of parliamentary business. It is scheduled for debate along with the other private member’s bills, but at a lower priority. The Backbench Business Committee (or Leader of the House of Commons, if the government decides to support the bill) are responsible for determining if and when to allocate parliamentary time for a second reading debate; the MP presenting the bill must then inform the Speaker of its date. The bill is generally printed and published shortly before the second reading.
Bills introduced under the Ten Minute Rule rarely progress much further, because the government usually opposes private member’s bills at the second reading and any later stages. Given their low priority in the schedule, there is often insufficient time for the legislative process to complete before the end of the parliamentary session. Most Ten Minute Rule introductions are instead used to stimulate publicity for a cause, especially because the debate follows the media-popular question time and is usually broadcast live on BBC Parliament. Alternatively, a Ten Minute Rule bill can be used to gauge the opinion of MPs on an issue which is planned to be introduced in another bill at a later date. [My bold]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Minute_Rule
Well I guess another progressive MP could get up to oppose it with the weakest arguments possible to at least get to the vote stage?
The current crop of main party MPs who seem to jump to the US tune like their little Parliamentary games, it’s subsidised food & drink to their non critical thinking minds so perhaps we play them at their own game for once?
Oh and I heard Jeremy Corbyn speak at the highly recommended trade union event ‘With Banners Held High’ in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on Saturday the 10th of May & he was excellent.
Jeremy then went on to speak at a Resistance meeting in nearby Huddersfield and someone who attended has posted on FB that Jeremy said that many were asking about a New Party and he quoted Jeremy as saying things are happening & something might be in place by the local elections in May 26.
But JC was adamant that it needed to be grassroots led & bottom up.
I believe JC is bang on & we need to engage with diverse citizens to transform society for the better for all WITH not FOR.
And with JC it would have name recognition amongst the masses.
So things may soon get exciting again as hundreds of thousands of us would answer the call, it would have millions in the bank to campaign with, hopefully having a branch in every constituency and many of us are very experienced campaigners but it must keep being altruistic & choose the best diverse working class fighters as candidates/outreach activists.
Would also be great to try to get some left wing unions on board.
The only potential weakness could be the problem of the vanguardist top downers who think only their programme has all the answers & only their leadership can bring a “Top down socialism FOR not WITH.”
So perhaps such groups should have to register and be HONEST about their group membership?
Perhaps many of us have learnt over the years that the Holy Grail of a Potential Left Wing Democratic Socialism is HONESTY.
Then hopefully together we can MAKE HISTORY AND ACT AS AN EXAMPLE TO OTHER COUNTRIES.
Solidarity.