Starmer’s Palestine problem

The attacks on Israel of October 7th 2023 fell on the first day of the Labour Party’s conference, and the scale of the slaughter was still emerging when it was taken as a proxy for a more trivial conflict: the battle between Labour’s factions for control of the party. Acolytes of Sir Keir Starmer, then its leader and now prime minister, wanted delegates to stand for a moment’s silence. Could it pass, live on television, without a heckle?