UK backs future Palestinian statehood but says Gaza ceasefire is priority
Macron announced on Thursday that France would be the first major Western country to recognise a Palestinian state, a plan that drew strong condemnation from Israel and the United States.
Starmer will later on Friday discuss ways with other European leaders to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza.
Speaking ahead of that meeting British science and technology minister Peter Kyle told Sky News:
"We want Palestinian statehood, we desire it, and we want to make sure the circumstances can exist where that kind of long-term political solution can have the space to evolve."
"But right now, today, we've got to focus on what will ease the suffering, and it is extreme, unwarranted suffering in Gaza that has to be the priority for us today."
London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, opens new tab and Labour lawmakers on parliament's foreign affairs select committee said this week that Britain should recognise a Palestinian state. A Starmer cabinet minister, Shabana Mahmood, said doing so would bring "multiple benefits" and send a message to Israel.
Successive British governments have said they would formally recognise a Palestinian state at the right time, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the conditions for it to happen.
Parliament's influential foreign affairs committee said on Friday "the government cannot continue to wait for the perfect time, opens new tab because experience shows that there will never be a perfect time."
Starmer was due to hold a call with German and French leaders on Friday over the situation in Gaza, which he described as an "unspeakable and indefensible" humanitarian catastrophe.
But in a statement announcing the call, Starmer said while statehood was the "inalienable right of the Palestinian people", Britain would not support it before a ceasefire was agreed.
One Labour member of parliament told Reuters that there was unhappiness with Starmer in the party over the government's failure to take more diplomatic steps to condemn Israel.
"Most of us are outraged by what is happening in Gaza and think we are being too timid," the lawmaker said.
Starmer's approach to the issue was further complicated by the arrival in Scotland later on Friday of U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom he has built warm relations.
In foreign policy terms, Britain has rarely diverged from the United States.
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The Independent
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