PM says he ‘particularly' listens to hostages after Palestine backlash
Ms Damari said that Sir Keir is 'not standing on the right side of history' and that she was 'deeply saddened' by the decision.
As well as Ms Damari's criticism, Wednesday also saw a group of peers warn that the pledge could break international law.
Speaking to ITV West Country while on a visit to Swindon on Thursday, the Prime Minister said: 'I particularly listen to the hostages, Emily Damari, who I have spoken to, – I've met her mother a number of times, and they've been through the most awful, awful experience for Emily and for her mother.
'And that's why I've been absolutely clear and steadfast that we must have the remaining hostages released. That's been our position throughout and I absolutely understand the unimaginable horror that Emily went through.
'Alongside that, we do need to do everything we can to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where we are seeing the children and babies starving for want of aid which could be delivered.
'That is why I've said unless things materially change on the ground, we'll have to assess this in September, we will recognise Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly in September.'
It comes as some 38 members of the House of Lords, including some of the UK's most eminent lawyers, wrote to Attorney General Lord Hermer.
As first reported by the Times newspaper, the peers warned Sir Keir Starmer's pledge to recognise Palestine may breach international law as the territory may not meet the criteria for statehood under the Montevideo Convention, a treaty signed in 1933.
Business minister Gareth Thomas described the decision as a 'political judgment' and said ministers 'believe it is' compliant with international law.
He told Times Radio 'In the end, recognition of another state is a political judgment and over 140 countries have already recognised Palestine, and we're determined to do so in September if Israel does not end the violence in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and agree to a lasting route towards a two-state solution, and to no annexation in the West Bank.'
In their letter to Lord Hermer, the peers said Palestine 'does not meet the international law criteria for recognition of a state, namely, defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states'.
There is no certainty over the borders of Palestine, they said, and no single government as Hamas and Fatah are enemies.
In their letter, seen by the PA news agency, the peers added: 'You have said that a selective, 'pick and mix' approach to international law will lead to its disintegration, and that the criteria set out in international law should not be manipulated for reasons of political expedience.
'Accordingly, we expect you to demonstrate this commitment by explaining to the public and to the Government that recognition of Palestine would be contrary to the principles governing recognition of states in international law.'
Lord Hermer has previously insisted a commitment to international law 'goes absolutely to the heart' of the Government's approach to foreign policy.
Sir Keir announced earlier this week that the UK could take the step of recognising Palestine in September ahead of a gathering at the UN.
The UK will only refrain from doing so if Israel allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank, agrees to a ceasefire, and signs up to a long-term peace process over the next two months, the Prime Minister said.
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Times
14 hours ago
- Times
Fifty peers have worked for lobbying firms since last year
At least 50 members of the House of Lords have worked for lobbying firms since January last year despite MPs being banned from paid advisory roles, a Times investigation has found. These include Lord Wood of Anfield, a Labour life peer who was appointed as chairman of the influential Lords economic affairs select committee while also being employed by the lobbying firm Bradshaw Advisory. The findings raise questions as to why peers do not face the same restrictions as MPs on work with public affairs firms. Lord Wood of Anfield HOUSE OF COMMONS In July last year MPs voted to bar themselves from accepting roles advising firms on how they might change laws, after a series of sleaze scandals. There are increasing calls for an overhaul of Britain's lobbying rules, with proposed changes including that peers should be banned from taking paid roles at consultant lobbying firms. An investigation by The Times into the UK's lobbying industry has revealed some of the inadequacies in the current rules. It found that in recent months businesses have been offered private meetings with 'an influential Labour figure' as part of sponsorship packages costing almost £9,500. The group which has been offering these deals — the Labour Infrastructure Forum (LIF) — is not part of the government, calls itself a think tank and is run by lobbyists from Bradshaw Advisory alongside an advisory council of senior Labour figures. The findings have only come to light because a prospectus for the group was leaked to reporters. The UK's lobbying rules do not compel lobbying firms to publicly disclose their meetings. Wood, who advised Gordon Brown in government and served under Ed Miliband as a shadow minister in opposition, was initially employed last year by Bradshaw Advisory as a 'senior adviser on public policy issues', according to his parliamentary register of interests. He ceased this role on January 31 this year, but continues to be employed by the lobbying firm as a non-executive director. In January, Wood was also appointed as chairman of the House of Lords economic affairs select committee, which scrutinises the work of the government on economic regulation. The committee is currently overseeing an investigation into the financial consequences of an ageing society, including discussions on pensions. Bradshaw Advisory has previously listed lobbying clients with interests in this area, including a pension fund and a representative group for finance companies. Bradshaw Advisory said it was 'lucky to have the world-leading economics and public policy academic, Lord Wood' as its non-executive director. A spokesman said that he advised the firm on business strategy, growth, economics, policy and people development and that 'he is not, and never has been, involved in any lobbying activity'. The spokesman said that Wood followed the House of Lords rules of conduct at all times and his relationship with the firm was disclosed on the House of Lords register. • How we exposed Labour's cosy links to lobbyists Bradshaw Advisory also oversees the day-to-day running of the LIF. There is no suggestion that Wood has been involved with the running of the LIF or any of its sponsorship deals. Bradshaw Advisory said it had 'complied with the law and disclosure rules at all times'. Another senior Labour peer, the government whip Baroness Blake of Leeds, was a member of the LIF for a time before ending her involvement with the group several months ago. The LIF said that it was an independent legal entity to Bradshaw Advisory and it did not engage in lobbying. It said it developed policy proposals focused on growth, sponsorship was used to cover its costs and that details about its sponsored work would be made publicly available in its next annual report. The Times collated the names of firms which have declared lobbying activity on official registers including the UK's Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL), the UK's Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) register and the EU's lobbying register. Reporters found that 50 peers have taken roles at lobbying firms included in these registers since January last year, including 19 who have previously served as government ministers. Baroness Vere of Norbiton faced criticism earlier this year when she announced that she would be taking a role as a partner of Stonehaven, which is registered as a consultant lobbying firm with the ORCL, and leading the firm's work on transport. She previously served in the Rishi Sunak government as a minister in the Department for Transport. After a day in the role Vere left the position, according to her Lords register of interests. The UK's Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) bans former ministers from lobbying for two years after leaving office, but Vere is understood to have been assured that she could take the job because her role would not include lobbying. Vere said she has always abided by and would continue to abide by the ministerial code advice provided by Acoba, and the code of conduct for members of the House of Lords. A Stonehaven spokesman said it was a longstanding member of the PRCA and took the letter and spirit of its rules seriously. They added: 'On reflection, we shouldn't have offered a role to Charlotte Vere. Stonehaven and Charlotte mutually agreed that she shouldn't join us and Stonehaven also ended its relationship with all other peers at the same time as part of the same process.' Baroness Vere of Norbiton ROGER HARRIS/HOUSE OF LORDS More widely, analysis by The Times of the Lords register of interests found that 196 peers registered at least one advisory role to any business in the past year, making up more than one in five members of the House of Lords. This included Baroness Brown of Cambridge, who was hired last year by the UK arm of the energy firm Holtec as a senior adviser. At the time she was chair of the House of Lords science and technology committee and she continued in this role until January this year. She is a current member of the Lords intelligence and security committee, a role she has had since December. Bradshaw Advisory has declared Holtec as one of its lobbying clients, according to the ORCL. Holtec said that Brown was one of the UK's most prominent engineers, that it was proud she had advised Holtec Britain, this role was 'entirely appropriate' and she had always declared her interests clearly and appropriately. A spokesman said: 'She is not involved in any lobbying activity.' Holtec said it had not sponsored the Labour Party or the LIF. Gabe Winn, CEO and founder of public affairs and communications firm Blakeney, said: 'Other countries have cleaned up their rules, and the UK must now do the same. The answer is glaringly obvious: no legislator should be paid, in any form, by a lobbying firm. You can shape policy or be paid to influence it — not both.' The House of Lords said it had a robust code of conduct, enforced via an independent investigatory process, which ensured transparency in members' financial interests and banned lobbying the government or other parliamentarians on behalf of those interests. A spokesman said: 'Unlike MPs, members of the House of Lords are not full-time salaried politicians.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Lord Desai obituary
An economist with a strong grasp of politics, Meghnad Desai, who has died aged 85, put telling the truth ahead of the pursuit of personal ambition. His work as professor at the London School of Economics had the wide perspective that came from his Indian heritage, and his interest in Labour politics led to him becoming an active member of the House of Lords. The first of his books, Marxian Economic Theory, was published in 1973. I was one of his many students who benefited from the use of his book Applied Econometrics (1976). Testing Monetarism (1981) predicted the demise of the money-supply targeting that was then being pursued by Margaret Thatcher's government. Marx's Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism (2002) contains perhaps his best-known contribution to the discipline. He asserted that Karl Marx had been misunderstood: he never said that capitalism was going to collapse anytime soon. On Meghnad's reading, Marx expected capitalism to continue until it had exhausted its productive potential, which given globalisation, could take a very long time. Appointed to the Lords by Neil Kinnock in 1991, he became a frontbench economics spokesman, but was sacked three years later by John Smith when a theoretical speculation of his ran counter to Labour's need for a presentable tax policy. Meghnad backed a proposal to widen the scope of the VAT net to include food and children's clothing. This view was subsequently supported in 2010 by Sir James Mirrlees' review for the Institute for Fiscal Studies as to how a more rational tax system could operate, but it was not a political headline that Labour was looking for in 1994. More presciently, he pointed out in early August 2022 that if Liz Truss were elected as Conservative leader and so the new prime minister, which she was a month later, then she would crash the pound. On the international stage, Meghnad championed a move away from a narrow focus on material progress in measuring development, and proposed instead a human development index. This found its way into the human development reports produced by the UN. With particular regard to India, Meghnad was an early proponent of, and an optimist about, the market-based reforms that were first introduced in 1991 and were to mark a turning point for Indian economic growth. In a tribute at the time of his deah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a 'distinguished thinker and reformer'. His later writings included Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar in the Life of India (2004), on the film star who brought method acting to Indian cinema; Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology of the New Terror (2006), distinguishing between the religion and the militant mindset; and The Rediscovery of India (2011), covering the last 500 years of the region's history. He turned his hand to fiction too, with Dead on Time (2009), featuring a British prime minister, and an autobiography, Rebellious Lord (2020). He published more than 200 articles in academic journals and books, and was co-editor of the Journal of Applied Econometrics from 1984 to 1991. In British political life, he was chairman of the Islington South and Finsbury Labour party between 1986 and 1992; the constituency's MP was Chris Smith. When in 2020 Meghnad felt that the Labour party had not done enough to counter antisemitism, he became a non-affliated peer, and then, in 2023, a crossbencher. Born in what is now Varodara, in Gujarat state, Meghnad was the son of Mandakini and Jagdhishchandra Desai, a civil servant. He started secondary school at the age of seven and matriculated at 14. Then he was educated at the University of Bombay and subsequently won a scholarship to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained his PhD at the age of 23 under the supervision of the Nobel laureate Lawrence Klein. After a short spell at the University of California, Berkeley, he arrived as a lecturer at the LSE in 1965, becoming professor in 1983 and emeritus in 2003, and president of the Association of University Teachers in Economics (1987-90). At the LSE he was head of the Development Studies Institute (1990-95), and founded and headed the Centre for the Study of Global Governance (1992-2003). In 1970, he married Gail Wilson, a lecturer at the LSE. They had three children, Tanvi, Nuala and Sven. The editor of his book on Dilip Kumar was Kishwar Ahluwalia. After his first marriage ended in divorce, he married Kishwar in 2004, and his family then expanded to include her three children, Gaurav, Mallika and Priyanka. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour awarded by India. Six years later, Meghnad founded the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, and as chair of the trustees, he raised money and worked with the UK government to help erect the statue in Parliament Square in 2015. He also supported Kishwar in her role as chair of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, the NGO responsible for creating and running the Partition Museum, which opened in Amritsar in 2017. Meghnad's kindness and generosity were evident when the economics internship I had been offered at a government department in 1979 fell victim to spending cuts by the incoming Thatcher government. He quickly found money to offer me a research assistant post, and encouraged many people early in their careers. His open-mindedness showed in his insistence, when I was an undergraduate, that I read widely, including John Rawls, the advocate of 'justice as fairness'. He is survived by Kishwar, his children and four grandchildren, Om, Ira, Chloe and Kiko. Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Lord Desai, economist, born 10 July 1940; died 29 July 2025
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Lord Dannatt urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at request of US firm
A member of the House of Lords urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the request of a US defence company that employs him as an adviser. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army, wrote privately to two separate Home Office ministers asking them to address the 'threat' posed by the group after its activists targeted a factory in 2022. The activists caused extensive damage to the factory which is run by Teledyne, a US multinational that sells technology for military, aerospace and other applications. Lord Dannatt has been a paid adviser to the company since 2022. Dannatt's involvement after the attack on the factory in Wales led to allegations heard later in court that the peer was 'seeking to influence' the criminal investigation into the Palestine Action activists. The police officer in charge of the investigation had told Teledyne executives that 'it would not be wise to have a member of the House of Lords poking around in a live criminal case', according to evidence heard in the trial of one of the activists. Dannatt said he was completely unaware of the exchanges in the trial and said the allegations were 'baseless'. His actions on behalf of the company nonetheless demonstrate the value to companies looking to affect government policy of having a member of the House of Lords as an adviser. Dannatt, 74, has sat in the Lords since 2011. He is now under investigation by the house authorities over two sets of allegations that he broke parliamentary rules that forbid lobbying. One allegation stems from undercover filming by the Guardian. He has denied the earlier allegations, saying: 'I am well aware of … the Lords code of conduct … I have always acted on my personal honour.' In July this year, ministers banned Palestine Action, claiming it was involved in terrorism. Supporters of the group countered that the ban was absurd and draconian. The group is challenging the legality of the ban in court. Two years ago, four activists were convicted of conspiring to damage Teledyne's factory in Presteigne in Wales. They had broken into the factory to protest against the sale of military equipment to Israel. They smashed windows and computer screens, drilled holes in the roof, sprayed red paint, and set off smoke grenades. Prosecutors told the court that the damage totalled more than £1m. The four activists were jailed for between 23 and 27 months. While three of the activists pleaded guilty, the fourth went to trial. Transcripts of her trial were obtained by the Guardian and reveal allegations heard in court that Dannatt sought to interfere in the police's investigation of the protest. On 19 December 2022, 10 days after the action at the Welsh factory, Sgt Alex Stuart of Dyfed-Powys police, who was in charge of the investigation, sent an email to four of his superiors. He had spoken with the general manager of the factory in the UK. She had told him that a senior Teledyne executive based in the US had 'spoken to Lord Richard Dannatt about Palestine Action'. Stuart wrote: 'Lord Dannatt was chief of the army general staff. He's now a life peer. He has an invested interest [sic] in this aspect of UK trade and investment, particularly military projects. 'Essentially there have been an indication that he wants this case to be explained and he wants to have some input on it. They haven't explained exactly what he wants, however I have told them that it would not be wise to have a member of the House of Lords poking around in a live criminal case.' He added: 'I have explained that they need to establish what Lord Dannatt wants.' He wrote that if the peer was concerned in general about Palestine Action's tactics, he should talk to senior police officers at a national level. 'It's not best placed for him to actively speak with an investigation team about the matter in the way that I think he wants to.' Later that day, a DCI replied to Stuart: 'The chief constable is aware of the case and has received an update. Whilst Lord Dannatt has every right to communicate with the force regarding matters of concern, it does not mean that the matters he raises receive the response that he may want.' At the criminal trial in May 2023, James Manning, the barrister for one of the defendants, asked Stuart whether he was concerned that Dannatt was seeking to have some input into the case which at that stage was being investigated by the police as a live criminal investigation. Stuart replied: 'Yeah, to a certain extent, yes.' Manning then asked: 'And you thought that that was inappropriate … and you told [Teledyne] as much?' Stuart replied: 'Yes.' Elen Owen, the prosecutor, told the court there was 'absolutely no evidence' that Dannatt had tried to 'influence' the investigation. 'He was just asking for information and the email … chain makes it quite clear that the decision was made by the police that it would be inappropriate to, to make any contact with him and, and that was the end of the matter.' The judge hearing the case, Rhys Rowlands, agreed with the prosecution that Dannatt was not relevant to the trial and that there was no evidence to suggest he had tried to interfere. His opinion was based on a decision about whether the police officer could be questioned about his concerns. He allowed the questioning to go ahead, though ruled Dannatt could not be named. Dannatt described the officer's allegations as 'unfounded' and pointed to the judge's view that he 'had nothing to do with the trial'. He suggested the general manager may have sought to use his name to help present their case. Teledyne and the general manager did not respond to a request for comment. On 22 December 2022, Dannatt had an online call with the factory's general manager and another senior member of Teledyne. Dannatt told the Guardian that Teledyne had 'contacted me to seek my assistance in raising concerns by the company to the government with regard to attacks on their premises'. He added: 'They briefed me on the Palestine Action attacks, and I then agreed to write to the home secretary.' In his letter, Dannatt declared his role 'at the outset' as a paid adviser to the company, but said he believed 'the threat from Palestine Action has more widespread implications for security and the economy within the United Kingdom'. The letter to Suella Braverman was headed 'General The Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL', addressed from the House of Lords. He outlined the details of Palestine Action's activities at Teledyne's factory and at another factory run by a different arms company in Edinburgh. Dannatt wrote: 'The slow pace at which the British legal system has been working to take action against those involved in the trespass and criminal damage resulting from such 'direct action' has served to embolden Palestine Action and their continued recruitment drive for individuals who are prepared to commit arrestable offences.' He told Braverman he would be 'very grateful to receive assurance that the threat from Palestine Action is fully recognised by our security services and appropriate action [is] either planned or being taken'. He said he had 'undertaken to brief the Teledyne main board in the United States that the threat from Palestine Action in the UK is being suitably addressed'. Dannatt contacted the government again in September 2024 after 'attacks on Teledyne facilities continued and the company asked [him] to raise their concerns again'. In a letter to Dan Jarvis, the Labour security minister, Dannatt once again disclosed his role. Under the same letterhead, he said he would be 'very grateful to receive assurance from the current government that the threat posed by Palestine Action continues to be fully recognised by our security services and that appropriate action is being taken.' The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.
