Keir Starmer has said he still does not support a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas - despite admitting the loss of civilian life in Gaza is “intolerable”.
The Labour leader suffered a major Commons rebellion last month when dozens of his MPs defied the party whip to vote for a complete end to hostilities in the conflict.
Israel’s bombing of Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas resumed last week after a temporary pause to allow some of the 200 hostages the militant group held to be released.
Since then, thousands more Palestinians have been killed.
On Radio Four’s Today programme this morning, presenter Mishal Husain asked Starmer if he now backed a full ceasefire.
He said: “I do want us to get back to the position we were in just nine or 10 days ago, which was when the hostilities did cease, albeit for a short period - seven or eight days.
“That allowed some hostages to be released, it allowed desperately-needed humanitarian aid to get in, but it also was a foot in the door for the political process.”
Husain said: “Sir Keir, are you calling for a pause now?”
The Labour leader replied: “Yes, absolutely, and we’ve been calling for it ever since hostilities resumed just over a week ago.”
The presenter said more than 10,000 Palestinians have died since Starmer gave a speech in London last month in which he said he did not support a full ceasefire.
“Large parts of Gaza are being flattened, everyone can see that from the pictures,” she said. “Is it really only a temporary pause that you think is the correct position now?”
Starmer said the position in Gaza is “intolerable” and added: “Of course in the long run everbody wants a ceasefire, the question is how do we get to that space?”
Husain told him: “We could get to it first by stopping the guns, that’s what’s allowed the release of hostages, and then you build on that.”
But the Labour leader said: “The way forward here is for the hostages to be released, we can’t lose sight of the fact that 150 people are still being held at gunpoint in tunnels and should be released immediately.
“It’s very difficult to argue for complete cessation of hostilities until there’s that immediate release.
“Equally, nobody wants to see the innocent lives lost in Palestine. The images we are seeing, the numbers, the reports of innocent civilians that are being killed in this is intolerable and we have to all put absolutely everything we can behind a return to a cessation of hostilities.”