Humza Yousaf has said Labour had to be “dragged” to its current stance on Gaza, but added there is now a lot of common ground in the parties’ positions on the conflict.
The First Minister spoke ahead of a vote at Westminster on an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party on Tuesday publicly shifted its stance to back a call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war, tabling its own amendment and giving Labour MPs who were unhappy with the leadership’s previous stance on the issue a wording to rally behind.
The Conservative UK Government has also put forward an amendment which says there should be an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the fighting before supporting “moves towards a permanent sustainable ceasefire”.
Mr Yousaf was asked about the issue during a visit to the Scottish Borders on Wednesday.
He told the PA news agency: “What I do welcome is that Labour have seemed to change their position and now support an immediate ceasefire – that’s welcome.
“They shouldn’t have had to get dragged there.
“Of course what I’m concerned about is that we’re now hearing if our motion is selected – and it is the SNP’s opposition day debate – that Labour might now not support it.”
He said it is for the Speaker of the Commons to determine which amendments are brought to a vote.
The SNP leader said his party cannot support the UK Government’s amendment.
He said it “doesn’t call for an immediate cessation of the violence”, adding: “We don’t just want a pause for the killing to stop for a temporary period.
“We want it to stop, full-stop.”
Mr Yousaf’s parents-in-law were trapped in Gaza when the fighting broke out in October before returning to Scotland the following month, while some members of his wife’s family are still there.
He called on Labour to back the SNP motion in the Commons, noting Scottish Labour had called for an immediate ceasefire at its conference at the weekend.
Mr Yousaf continued: “The most important thing for today, at the end of the vote, is to have the House of Commons speak with one voice to say that there should be an immediate ceasefire.
“We can have differences or nuances of policy, and I actually don’t think there is much difference in terms of some of the nuances between our own position, the Liberal Democrat position, the Labour position for example, the Green position – there’s quite a lot of commonality.
“But what we want to do is ensure that the people of Gaza and the international community hear that the House of Commons speaks – with a majority I would hope – to say that we believe in an immediate ceasefire.”
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow international development minister, told Sky News earlier on Wednesday that failing to back her party’s own motion on a ceasefire in Gaza would mean “we will have missed an opportunity to put forward a serious proposal that allies Britain with our international allies and enables us all to speak with one voice at this critical moment”.
She also criticised the SNP for failing to discuss the wording of its motion with Labour beforehand, saying: “If they wanted to put a proposition before the House that all parties could have voted for, they could have discussed it with us, I think they would have chosen very different language.”
Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.
Subscribe