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 Keir 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.
Renewed calls for recognition of a Palestinian state within the UK government come after a 30-country conference held in Colombia last week, aimed at ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Established this year, The Hague Group was brought together by South Africa and Colombia but has grown to include Brazil, Indonesia, Spain and Qatar.
Thornberry also said the UK needed to work with the US to put further pressure on the Israeli government, and to find an internationally accepted long-term solution.
Israel and the US oppose recognition of a Palestinian state, and have been advising UN delegations not to attend the UN conference in New York, which has been postponed as a result of the Israel-Iran war. Israel has said recognition would be seen as a reward for Hamas terrorism.
Thornberry said: “We have been a force for good when it comes to Ukraine, but I do think we should also be saying to President Trump: ‘We need you, you have the power of 100 presidents, you can do what all the other presidents couldn’t do.’
“But the Israelis have to come onboard and they cannot continue just to say no and not have any credible alternative.”
