Was Keir Starmer pushed on Palestinian statehood or did he wait for right moment?

Irish Times

30-07-2025

In the end, Keir Starmer acted. After an emergency cabinet meeting lasting about 90 minutes on Tuesday, the British prime minister put the UK on an path to recognising
Palestine
as a state, probably as soon as September.
For Labour MPs and cabinet ministers who have lobbied Starmer to take this decisive diplomatic step for months, there was huge relief, coupled with frustration that it had taken so long.
'He was pushed,' one senior Labour MP said. That is strongly denied by Starmer's allies, who insisted the prime minister was just waiting for the moment when recognition of a Palestinian state would have the most impact. 'It was always when, not if,' one said.
Starmer has frustrated many in the
Labour Party
– not just left-wingers – over his handling of the
Gaza
crisis and what some MPs have seen as a lack of urgency in his response to the grim scenes unfolding there.
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When French president
Emmanuel Macron
announced last week he would recognise Palestinian statehood at the
United Nations
General Assembly in September, that frustration with Starmer turned to anger.
'Number 10 had loads of incoming fire over the weekend,' one minister said. More than 130 Labour MPs signed a letter calling on Starmer to move now to Palestinian state recognition.
Starmer's aides insisted the end result of Tuesday's cabinet meeting was '100 per cent unity' behind a position that is most likely to see Britain recognise a Palestinian state around the time of the UN General Assembly.
'One way or another you get to Palestinian recognition,' one Starmer ally said, after the prime minister set out a 'UK plan' for a stable peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which he hopes will win wide international support.
Under Starmer's plan, Britain will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless
Israel
takes 'substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza', agrees to a ceasefire and commits to a long-term, sustainable peace based on a two-state solution.
Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said bluntly: 'That's not going to happen.' She said the only way it could conceivably happen would be if Israel changed its government before September.
But even in the extremely unlikely event that
Binyamin Netanyahu
, Israel's prime minister, agreed with Starmer's 'conditions', that would still create a pathway for Britain recognising Palestine as part of a two-state solution.
Starmer has been advised throughout by Jonathan Powell, his national security adviser, who has stressed the importance of holding back recognition until it might make some difference. He notes that more than 140 countries have already recognised a Palestinian state to little effect.
Powell, an architect of the
Northern Ireland
peace process, wanted Britain to act with other allies, but Macron's surprise decision to announce the French position last week left Starmer looking like he was being buffeted by events.
Starmer has been suspected by some inside the Labour Party of being too soft on Netanyahu ever since an LBC interview in October 2023, when he was asked whether Israel's right to self defence extended to cutting off power and water to Gaza.
'I think that Israel does have that right,' Starmer replied. He subsequently claimed he was answering a previous question and was not backing the cutting off of crucial supplies to Gaza, but the perception stuck.
YouGov polling found that of those Labour voters in 2024 who had subsequently switched their support to the Greens, some 25 per cent named the ruling party's stance on Gaza as a reason. A new party set up by
Jeremy Corbyn
, the former leftwing Labour leader, will be mining the same seam of voters.
Ministers as well as Labour MPs have been frustrated with Starmer. After Macron announced his stance on Palestinian statehood, one minister said: 'The block is Keir himself as well as his senior advisers and their desire to stay close to the US.'
Downing Street officials admitted the United States might react negatively to Starmer's ultimatum to Netanyahu.
Marco Rubio
, US secretary of state, said last week that Macron's move was 'a reckless decision that only serves
Hamas
propaganda'.
Donald Trump
was less hostile to the idea during his meetings with Starmer in Scotland this week, suggesting that he would not be too upset if the UK went down the same route as France. The US president's comments on scenes of 'real starvation' in Gaza also changed the mood.
On the way back from Scotland aboard Air Force One, Trump said he had 'no view on that' when asked about the UK's announcement – claiming Starmer had barely raised the matter of Palestinian statehood – while also appearing to question the case for pressuring Israel.
Starmer hopes his plan will garner support from allies – he is due to speak shortly to Canada's
Mark Carney
– and that he can answer his Labour critics by putting himself at the forefront of a fresh push for peace.
But Trump is wary of the UK plan, while Germany's
Friedrich Merz
is unlikely to back a Palestinian state any time soon.
Nor is there any sign that Netanyahu will change his approach to Gaza and endorse a peace process based on a two-state solution for fear of Britain and France formally recognising a Palestinian state in September.
However, Starmer's plan was backed by the British public in a poll by YouGov released on Tuesday, which showed that 45 per cent of people supported recognition of a Palestinian state, with only 14 per cent opposed.
Starmer, who is also trying to galvanise an international aid effort, has belatedly aligned himself with his party and the public on Palestinian statehood. Many Labour figures wish it had just happened sooner. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025