THE Scottish Parliament backed calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in a historic vote today.

Scottish MSPs voted by 90 votes to 28 on a motion that the SNP, Labour and Green parties had all pledged to back.

The Holyrood vote leaves Westminster the only parliament in Britain failing to back a ceasefire in Gaza, after rejecting the SNP’s motion by 294 votes to 125 last week.

Leading the debate in Holyrood, First Minister Humza Yousaf said: “The UK government and the international community must use their influence to prevent the further loss of innocent life.

“Every child the world over deserves to grow old. The children of Gaza and Israel deserve nothing less.

“It is our moral obligation to act. Let us hope, even in these, the darkest of times, that humanity prevails.”

Before the vote had even taken place, the Palestinian solidarity movement was buoyed by news that Mr Yousaf had written to both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK government to formally recognise the state of Palestine within the borders that existed prior to Israel’s invasion in 1967.

Mr Yousaf’s letter read: “The UK needs to work with the international community to break, once and for all, the political impasse that has condemned Israelis and the Palestinians to successive cycles of violence.

“This would be assisted were the UK to recognise the state of Palestine within the 1967 borders, as over 130 members of the United Nations, including nine members of the European Union, have done, and as the new Spanish government has pledged.

“Recognition would offer hope to Palestinians that a just and durable political solution is possible.

“It would make it plain to the Israeli government that a military solution is illusory and the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza is unacceptable.

“I urge you to show the international leadership you claim for the UK by calling for an immediate ceasefire by all sides — and by announcing the UK government’s recognition of the state of Palestine.”

Campaigners for peace and Palestinian solidarity gathered outside Holyrood ahead of the debate to ensure the voices of Gazans were heard.

Rights lawyer and activist Aamer Anwar told campaigners that the vote was an opportunity for the Scottish Parliament to atone for “voting to back a war in Iraq that cost a million lives” 20 years earlier.

Branding Sir Keir’s calls for a “humanitarian pause” as moral cowardice, Mr Anwar told the rally: “We have a message for the chamber today: Pausing for a short time to evacuate or to bring in food and water, only then to resume killing, is beyond cruelty.”

The SNP’s Bill Kidd was the first of a number of SNP and Labour parliamentarians to address the rally before joining the debate.

He said: “We need a ceasefire now, not for a few days: we need it permanently.

“I want us to be the voice of the world today, a world that stands up for Gaza.”

Addressing the rally, Labour’s Mercedes Villalba said: “We see the attempts to drive people from their homes, from their communities and from their land; the attempts to break their spirit, their hope and to rob them of their future.

“We see it, and we refuse to ignore apartheid. So today, I will vote for a ceasefire.

“Today the Labour Party will vote for a ceasefire. We will see Palestine free!”