Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.
The prime minister is facing a growing clamour to take action amid the international outcry over Israel’s actions, with charities saying that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza City have tripled in the last two weeks.
The UK, France and Germany said on Friday afternoon that the Gaza “humanitarian catastrophe must end now” and called on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid”. “Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” they said in a joint statement.
Starmer said after a call with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, that the “continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible”.
He said he was “unequivocal” in his support of recognising a Palestinian state but said “it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility to improve the lives of those who are suffering, which, of course, will always be our ultimate goal.”
World map showing which countries have recognised Palestinian statehood and in what year they recognised
The statement came as Donald Trump flew into Scotland for a four-day visit, which includes a visit from Starmer on Monday. Macron upped the pressure on Starmer this week by announcing that France would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly in September.
Trump on Friday dismissed Macron’s move by saying it “doesn’t carry weight” and is “not going to change anything”.
The UK government’s policy is that it will formally acknowledge Palestine as part of a peace process, but only in conjunction with other western countries and “at the point of maximum impact”.
Cooper and Rayner are among more than half a dozen cabinet ministers pressing for urgent action. The Guardian revealed this week that Wes Streeting, the health secretary, Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, and Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, have all pushed for recognition of Palestine at recent cabinet meetings.
Ian Murray, the Scotland secretary, and Jo Stevens, the Wales secretary, have also raised the issue in cabinet, according to a cabinet source. Murray and Stevens declined to comment.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is also said to have called for action, and Lammy is said by colleagues to be pushing Downing Street to take a stronger stance. A government source said it was increasingly “everybody v No 10”.
“Too many people in No 10 just see this as a ‘left’ issue and actually don’t get how widespread public anger is,” a Labour source said.
Rayner said last month that the west needed to avoid repeating past mistakes when it came to Gaza. Addressing a service at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed by Serbian forces in 1995, she said: “The west took too long to act in the 1990s and we should have acted sooner. Now we must learn the lessons of history and the consequences of inaction.”
On Friday, 221 MPs from nine parties signed a letter to Lammy calling for British recognition of Palestine to be announced next week at a UN conference in New York.
“Whilst we appreciate the UK does not have it in its power to bring about a free and independent Palestine, UK recognition would have a significant impact due to our historic connections and our membership on the UN security council,” the MPs wrote.
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“British recognition of Palestine would be particularly powerful given its role as the author of the Balfour Declaration and the former Mandatory Power in Palestine. Since 1980 we have backed a two-state solution. Such a recognition would give that position substance as well as living up to a historic responsibility we have to the people under that mandate.”
The letter’s signatories included several Labour select committee chairs, including Emily Thornberry, of foreign affairs, Sarah Champion, of international development, and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, of defence.
Other signatories included the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, the Green party co-leaders, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, and the Conservative MPs Kit Malthouse and Edward Leigh.
The true number of backbench Labour MPs who support recognition is even higher. Several said they were in favour of the move but did not put their names to the letter. “We need to do more. Israel is committing terrible war crimes,” one Labour MP said. Nearly 60 Labour MPs signed a similar letter to Lammy earlier this month.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five at its Gaza City clinic had tripled in the last two weeks and the UN World Food Programme said nearly a third of people in Gaza were not eating for days, with the hunger crisis having reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation”.
Israel said it would allow foreign countries to resume aid drops into Gaza from Friday.
In an article for the Daily Mirror, Starmer said ministers were working with Jordanian authorities to get British aid on to planes and into Gaza.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, accused the international community of sticking its head in the sand as Palestinians starved in Gaza, lambasting what he called a “lack of humanity”. “This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience,” he said on Friday.