A senior Labour MP has said it is time for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state as some western countries are due to press ahead with their own recognition plans at an international conference this month.
Emily Thornberry, who heads the influential House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, said that without a ceasefire and a long-term political solution Israel’s war on Gaza – which has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023 – will continue.
“The only way through this is for there to be an Israeli state that is safe and secure, alongside a Palestinian state that is recognised,” Thornberry told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday.
The UK Foreign Office is under pressure to recognise a Palestinian state from Thornberry as well as nearly 60 other Labour MPs.
The calls from Labour backbenchers come after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told British parliamentarians in a visit this month that a two-state solution was “the only way” to build peace and stability in the region.
Later this month, France and Saudi Arabia are co-chairing an international conference at the UN in New York where it plans to announce that it recognises Palestine. Recognition alone would not solve the conflict, Thornberry said, but it could give the issue political momentum.
“We are the two parties to that ancient treaty more than 100 years ago, the secret Sykes-Picot agreement that carved up the Middle East in the first place. I think there is some kind of political significance to those two countries coming together again,” she said.
When asked about the Labour government’s position, Thornberry said she believed Kier Starmer wanted to recognise a Palestinian state. “It’s just a question of when,” she said
The Foreign Office, which has been approached for comment, has previously stated its formal position to recognise Palestine will come at an appropriate moment of maximum impact – without clarifying what or when that is.
“If we recognise a Palestinian state, I think we show ourselves to be a country that wants to be involved, that wants to be an honest broker, that wants to be a force for good, and we think a way forward is two states and we’ve always thought that.”
“Too many people have been killed, there has to be peace. Peace can only be achieved through political conversation, through negotiations,” said Thornberry. “We cannot allow the status quo to continue.”
Thornberry also said the UK government needed to make it clear that Israel settlements in the West Bank were illegal and there should be sanctions imposed on those involved.
