Labour rebels who quit or were sacked over a rebellion on Gaza could rejoin Keir Starmer’s top team after the election, the shadow defence secretary has suggested.
It comes as the party seeks to play down talk of splits after Sir Keir lost 10 members of his frontbench in a major revolt over the Israel-Hamas war.
A total of 56 Labour MPs voted for an SNP amendment to the King’s speech backing a ceasefire.
Sir Keir has warned a full-scale ceasefire would “embolden” Hamas, calling for humanitarian “pauses” in the fighting instead.
Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, was among 10 frontbenchers who defied the leader’s order not to vote for the amendment, resigning from Sir Keir’s top team.
But shadow defence secretary John Healey told the BBC on Thursday he “regrets” losing the frontbench colleagues, stressing that they would all work to put Sir Keir in Downing Street.
Asked whether rebelling would rule them out of a ministerial post in a Labour government, Mr Healey said: “That’s for well down the track.”
Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence, was among the frontbenchers who either quit or were sacked.
Mr Healey insisted there was a “deeper unity” in the Labour Party than the rebellion indicated.
He told BBC Breakfast he understood why backbenchers wanted to “respond to their constituents and call for an immediate ceasefire”.
But he insisted the “vast majority” back what he described as the most practical step of calling for humanitarian pauses to get aid into Gaza and the hostages out.
Mr Healey argued that the frontbenchers who broke ranks to call for a ceasefire still want to see Sir Keir become prime minister.
“I know they all wrestled with this difficult decision and I know they all have said that they 100% want Keir Starmer in Downing Street and will work together to secure a Labour government,” he told Times Radio.
“This is a difficult issue that we faced last night but Keir Starmer was right, when it comes to a parliamentary vote, to be firm, to require collective responsibility and discipline.”
Other former shadow ministers now on the backbenches include Yasmin Qureshi, Afzal Khan, Paula Barker, Rachel Hopkins, Sarah Owen, Naz Shah and Andy Slaughter.
Parliamentary private secretaries Dan Carden and Mary Foy, who had been working with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, joined them in leaving their positions.
MPs voted 293 to 125, majority 168, to reject the SNP’s amendment calling for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
In a statement following the vote, Sir Keir said he regretted that party colleagues had not backed his position.
He added: “But I wanted to be clear about where I stood, and where I will stand.”
