UK Cabinet pushes Starmer over backing of Palestinian state

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing pressure from senior members of his government and French President Emmanuel Macron to imminently recognize Palestine as a sovereign state due to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Some Cabinet ministers have grown frustrated with Starmer’s resistance to fulfilling his promise to back Palestinian statehood, according to people familiar with the matter. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy have recently urged Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy to move more quickly on the issue, the people said.

Macron, who had been seeking to persuade Starmer to jointly recognize Palestine over recent months, announced late Thursday that France will do so at the United Nations General Assembly in September, intensifying pressure on Starmer further. The British premier said Thursday that “statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people” and that a ceasefire would put the U.K. “on a path” to recognition, but stopped short of committing to a timeframe.

The two leaders will hold a call on Friday about the issue, along with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Talks for a ceasefire in Gaza broke down on Thursday, with the U.S. and Israel withdrawing their negotiating teams. It’s a development that deals a new blow to the talks, just weeks after President Donald Trump said a deal was close.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Macron’s decision as “reckless” in a social media post overnight.

The tension within the U.K. government on the issue has been stoked by reports of widespread hunger in Gaza just two weeks after the European Union struck an agreement with Israel that was intended to increase the flow of food to the occupied territory. There have been increasing reports of emaciated babies, starvation and children crammed into soup queues.

While the Israeli government has sought to blame Hamas, Médecins Sans Frontières and many other humanitarian groups accused Israel of failing to make good on the arrangement. Since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also hardened its stance against the creation of a Palestinian state, arguing it poses a risk to Israel’s security.

But the devastating impact of Israel’s incursion into Gaza — which has resulted in more than 59,000 estimated deaths and reduced vast areas to rubble — has driven some of Israel’s traditional supporters in Europe to speak out and consider trade sanctions aimed at hastening an end to the conflict. The U.K. has suspended some arms exports to Israel and sanctioned senior members of Netanyahu’s administration.

‘Do far more’

Some senior Labour figures have both publicly and privately warned that even if the U.K. chooses to recognize Palestine at the U.N. in September, it may come too late given the scale of the destruction.

In an unusual public intervention on an issue that’s not part of his brief, Streeting told the House of Commons on Tuesday said he hoped recognition will happen “while there is still a state of Palestine left to recognize.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined the calls for the U.K. to immediately recognize Palestinian statehood the next day, urging the government to “do far more to pressure the Israeli government.”

The Guardian was first to report the Cabinet unrest.

Parliament’s influential Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday also called for the government to immediately recognize the state of Palestine and “act more boldly and bravely” in its preparations with allies for a two-state solution, saying the government “cannot continue to wait for the perfect time because experience shows that there will never be a perfect time.”

Emily Thornberry, chair of the committee and Labour’s former shadow foreign secretary, said in a statement that there is “huge frustration among many of the British public that the government has consistently acted too little, too late.”

United Nations

The U.K. will be represented at a United Nations conference being convened by France and Saudi Arabia in New York next week but hasn’t yet decided whether to send Lammy or a more junior minister, according to people familiar with the matter. France will use the summit to discuss efforts to achieve a ceasefire and a two-state solution but won’t formally recognize Palestine until a gathering of leaders at UNGA in September. The U.K. is yet to decide whether it will follow France in doing so, the people said.

Lammy has argued in recent weeks that despite other countries having already recognized Palestine, his immediate focus is on “trying to alleviate the suffering” in the region.

“I recognize the debate on recognition, and we must move to recognition at the appropriate point,” Lammy told the House of Commons earlier this week after several Labour lawmakers urged him to move faster. But, he added, “I do not believe in all honesty that recognition would change the situation on the ground.”