The SNP has found a new role, positioning itself as the conscience of the Labour party. The party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, welcoming Keir Starmer’s move to back an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, said the Labour leader was "forced into this position through public pressure and, in particular, by the SNP".

The SNP are turning up the heat on their principal adversaries.

Of course, that’s not all it is. We should be wary about assuming that either the SNP’s actions or Labour’s response over a Gaza ceasefire have been governed by domestic political considerations alone, significant though they may be. Labour’s previous position had become insupportable principally because of the sheer horror of the war and the dreadful prospect of a ground invasion of Rafah. The Israeli Defence Forces insist they are trying to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza, but that claim has been very hard to reconcile with much of what has been seen and heard of the war.

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Let us take a moment to remember the appalling circumstances surrounding the death of six-year-old Hind Rajab on January 29. Hind was fleeing from Gaza City with her family in a car when according to recordings of Hind’s 15-year-old cousin Layan desperately talking to the Palestinian Red Crescent, their car came under fire from an Israeli tank. Hind’s family, including Layan, were apparently killed in the attack and Hind was trapped in the car with their bodies. “Will you come and get........

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