Bolton: Chris Green says vote has 'zero impact' on Gaza

The vote, proposed by the Scottish National Party as an amendment to the King’s Speech on Wednesday night, proved deeply contentious and prompted Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi MP to resign from the frontbench to vote in favour of a ceasefire in defiance of her party’s leadership.

But her Conservative counterpart in Bolton West, Chris Green MP, voted against the amendment, which he says is unlikely to have much effect in any case.

He said: “There are two aspects to this, firstly whether people voted for the SNP amendment or against the SNP amendment or against the SNP amendment it will have zero impact of the chances for peace in the Middle East and every single politician knows this.”

Bolton has seen several pro-Palestine protests in recent weeks (Image: Henry Lisowski)

He added: “Secondly those politicians who voted for the ceasefire will have to explain what mechanisms they have for negotiations with Hamas who are on record as saying they would repeat the slaughter of more than 1,200 people again and again and again.

“And I have not seen a single politician who has been able to do that.”

The 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, most of them civilians, were mostly killed in communities along the Gaza strip after Hamas launched its surprise attack on October 7.

But since then, more than 11,000 Palestinians, again mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza.

More than 170 Palestinians have also been killed on the West Bank by the Israeli military and settlers, while Hamas is believed to be holding around 240 Israeli hostage.

Bolton has seen several large scale public protests organised by the group Bolton4Palestine, a vigil for the children of Gaza organised by activists Bernadette Gallagher and Florence Hill and a separate vigil organised by the leaders of the borough’s political parties calling for peace in the region.  

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The amendment proposed by the SNP during the King's Speech on Wednesday called for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire.”

But while Mr Green voted against the amendment, his Conservative colleague for Bolton North East Mark Logan MP abstained.

Mr Green said: “There are a huge number of reasons why people may abstain, people can be ill, they or their partners may be pregnant, they may have urgent business elsewhere so there can be plenty of good reasons why people abstain.”

On resigning from the frontbench, Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi said that “it is the only secure and reliable option to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those who desperately need it."