Politics: Last Wednesday’s shameful events show Westminster is utterly broken

Occasionally, there comes around a debate in Parliament where dispassionate commentators and keen observers of politics are able to say things like ‘Westminster rose to the occasion’ or that the debate enhanced the authority of Parliament.

Neither of those things happened last week.

Events in Gaza and Israel are both shocking and horrifying.

Lessons in the unfortunate history of the Middle East and Britain’s role in helping create that are not necessary to understand that the ever-increasing loss of innocent lives in that region is truly abhorrent.

The expression of the view of a country’s elected representatives on international affairs is important and can have some influence.

My inbox also tells me day and daily that this is a matter of profound concern to a great many of my constituents who take the time to tell me so.

It is therefore all the more disappointing and frustrating that what should have been a straightforward debate in the House of Commons last week was diverted by the actions of the Speaker into an unedifying spectacle concerned with Parliamentary procedure.

I and my SNP colleagues have consistently called for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel - and we will do everything we can to change the UK Government's strategy of equivocation.

Since the UK Parliament voted against a ceasefire in November, 29,000 Palestinian children, women and civilians have been killed - and vast swathes of Gaza have been destroyed.

But last Wednesday’s shameful events show Westminster is utterly broken.

This should have been the chance for the UK Parliament to do the right thing and vote for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel and against the collective punishment of the Palestinian people - instead it turned into a Westminster circus.

The leader of the Labour Party has insisted he was not responsible for what transpired following his meeting with the Speaker. The Speaker himself has cited concerns about the safety of MPs as being his motivation for acting as he did.

I bow to no-one in the seriousness with which I take the safety of all Members and staff in Parliaments everywhere.

It is but a short time since Sir David Amess was murdered at a constituency surgery and Jo Cox was similarly attacked and killed outside one of her surgeries.

We’re not immune from such threats in the north-east and just last year a man was sentenced to imprisonment for threatening a local MSP.

Serious though these current threats may be, we cannot allow such actions to dictate how and what we debate in a parliamentary democracy.

Calls for the UK to back an immediate ceasefire have never just been about the symbolism of having a strong and clear position against the hostilities - they have always been about forcing the UK Government to use every lever it has to achieve an immediate ceasefire.

As a key ally of Israel and the United States, and as a permanent member of the UN security council, the UK is not - and must not - be a spectator on the sidelines.

Instead, it must finally join with the UN, and the majority of the international community, in backing an immediate ceasefire - and take concrete steps to secure one using the range of influence at its disposal.