LABOUR opposition to its bellicose leader Sir Keir Starmer mounted unabated today, despite his attempt to shuffle away from his earlier backing for Israeli war crimes.

At least 330 local Labour councillors, most of them non-Muslim, have signed a letter to Sir Keir warning that “the intensified human catastrophe in Gaza impacts us all, and the Labour Party’s failure to call for an end to violence is causing hurt in our communities.”

The councillors join the Labour Mayors of Greater London and Greater Manchester, the party’s leader in Scotland, more than a dozen parliamentary front-benchers and over 60 Labour MPs in backing calls for a ceasefire.

And councillors continue to quit the party in protest at the refusal to call for a ceasefire in the harrowing conflict. Mark Blake has become the third to leave in Haringey, north London, over the war.

He said: “In times of war and conflict leaders need to be careful with their words and ensure they do not engage in language that reinforces divisions and can escalate tensions.

“The leader of the Labour Party’s declaration that Israel had a right to deny food and water to the Palestinian people was for me unforgivable.”

The three Haringey councillors are now thought likely to form an independent socialist group on their council, as colleagues in Oxford have already done.

Seven Blackburn councillors have also left Labour. One, Salim Sidat, said: “It is evident that there is no willingness from the party leadership to adopt a humanitarian stance or even call for a ceasefire.”

Another, Suleman Khona, stated that Labour had been “the party of social justice and speaking up for the oppressed, regardless of where they were in the world” but was now “supporting the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people which is not justice, it is unbridled revenge on a targeted group of defenceless people.”

The ceasefire demand is being echoed at grassroots up and down the country. Hackney Palestine Solidarity were set to hold a vigil last night commemorating the thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza while CND Cymru said it was “disappointed” by First Minister Mark Drakeford’s failure to call for a ceasefire.

Adam Johannes, secretary of Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, piled pressure on local MP Jo Stevens to call for an end to hostilities, saying she was “effectively supporting war crimes and collective punishment of a civilian population.”