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Middle East Eye
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
MP Shockat Adam says Starmer dodging issue of Gaza atrocities after Commons exchange
Independent MP Shockat Adam has criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for claiming "most of what he says is not right" after Adam asked whether the UK will "acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is underway" and end its military cooperation with Israel. Adam, the MP for Leicester South and a member of the parliamentary Independent Alliance group, put the questions to Starmer on Wednesday during Prime Minister's Questions in parliament. But the prime minister dodged the questions and said that Adam's remarks were mostly "not right". On Thursday morning Middle East Eye asked 10 Downing Street to specify which of Adam's statements were incorrect but the prime minister's office refused to respond. "The prime minister accuses me of being 'not right' - yet fails to challenge a single fact I raised," Adam told MEE on Thursday. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters His question on Wednesday came as rights groups accused Foreign Secretary David Lammy of misleading parliament over the UK's arms sales to Israel. In parliament on Wednesday, Adam said: "This week, the Israeli government approved a plan to officially conquer Gaza, and just yesterday, Minister Smotrich vowed that Gaza will be entirely destroyed and that the Palestinians will have to leave in great numbers to third countries." It has been widely reported, including by Britain's public broadcaster, that Israel's security cabinet approved a plan this week to "capture" Gaza and hold its territory. It has likewise been widely reported that Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, said "Gaza will be entirely destroyed" on Tuesday. Speaking in front of the House of Commons today, independent British MP Shockat Adam, called for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to 'finally acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is underway' in Gaza and to 'end all military co-operation with Israel.' — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 7, 2025 Adam further referenced the "extermination of over 50,000 Palestinian men, women, and children, and at the same time the simultaneous expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, something I witnessed with my own eyes last week." Late last month Adam and Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George toured Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Some of Adam's statements regarding Israeli actions have been previously made by the British government. The UK decried the "expansion of settlements, in clear violation of international law" at the United Nations Security Council in September. And Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, said just this week that "more than 52,000 people have now been killed in Gaza". Dodging the questions Adam continued in the Commons: "So will now the prime minister finally acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is underway and to end all UK military cooperation with Israel, especially the illegal provision of F-35 fighter jet parts, or will he risk make Britain complicit in war crimes and be the prime minister to see Britain answer at the Hague for its role in this atrocity?" On Wednesday a new report based on Israeli import data revealed that a wide range of UK-made military goods and arms, including F-35 fighter jet parts, are still being sent to Israel even after the British government suspended 30 arms export licences in September. British MPs confronted by Israeli settlers during visit to Palestinian territories Read More » Starmer did not answer Adam's questions, but replied: "Well, Mr Speaker, most of what he [Adam] says is simply not right." The prime minister continued: "I do want to address the position in Gaza and the West Bank because it is increasingly intolerable, and I am deeply concerned, particularly with the lack of aid that is getting in and the impact it's having on tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of individuals." He added: "That concern is something I recently reaffirmed to the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, where I asserted again that a two-state solution is the only viable approach for peace, and our focus is on delivering peace for Palestinians and Israelis, returning to the ceasefire, getting the hostages out, and humanitarian aid in that is desperately needed in greater numbers and more quickly." Speaking to MEE on Thursday, Adam criticised Starmer's refusal to answer his questions, saying: "Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. "Senior Israeli ministers speak openly of destroying Gaza and displacing its population. The settlements in the West Bank are expanding at an expediating rate. "These are not disputed claims; they are atrocities in plain sight." "By continuing to supply parts for F-35 fighter jets - weapons that have played a central role in Israel's devastating assault - Britain is not just morally compromised, it is at risk of breaching both international and UK law. 'If parliament has been misled by the foreign secretary or any minister it is a resigning matter' - John McDonnell MP "The question is simple: will this government stop aiding war crimes, or will it be remembered for helping to enable them?" The report released by three campaign groups on Wednesday says parts for the F-35 jet, which has been critical for Israel's war on Gaza, appear to have arrived in Israel as recently as March - five months after the UK said it had suspended its direct exports over concerns they might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law. Data from the Israeli Tax Authority cited by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Workers for a Free Palestine and Progressive International shows that 8,630 separate munitions have been sent from the UK to Israel since the suspensions. The munitions fall under a category of import labelled "bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and parts thereof". Soon after the suspensions, Foreign Secretary David Lammy had told parliament that "much of what we send is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms". The report's authors write: "On the basis of the evidence in this report, it appears that David Lammy has misled parliament and the public about arms shipments to Israel." In response to the study, nearly two dozen MPs have written to Lammy, urging him to come before parliament to respond to the allegations. UK continuing to send arms to Israel despite ban, report finds Read More » Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell and MP Zarah Sultana, who signed the letter, are also calling on the prime minister to launch an investigation into whether ministers misled parliament and the public and make it clear that if the ministerial code has been breached, they must resign. "If parliament has been misled by the foreign secretary or any minister it is a resigning matter and more importantly it attracts potentially a charge of complicity in war crimes," McDonnell said. A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Guardian: "This government has suspended relevant licences for the [Israeli Defence Forces] that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. "Of the remaining licences for Israel, the vast majority are not for the Israeli Defence Forces but are for civilian purposes or re-export, and therefore are not used in the war in Gaza. "The only exemption is the F-35 programme due to its strategic role in Nato and wider implications for international peace and security. Any suggestion that the UK is licensing other weapons for use by Israel in the war in Gaza is misleading."
The National
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The National
Israeli police officers aimed guns at two British MPs in West Bank
Independent Alliance MP Shockat Adam and LibDem Andrew George were watching settlers grazing livestock when armed settlers and soldiers approached them on April 15. Speaking at a press conference in London, Adam (below) said: 'We were witnessing settlers, who were already armed, grazing their sheep and their cows on land that did not belong to them. (Image: NQ) 'While we stopped to observe this, a police car came hurtling towards us and I think there's some images of the police officers who came out pointing guns at us, hands on the trigger.' Adam said that guns were lowered after their local guide explained who he and George were, adding: 'But their hands were still on the trigger.' The Leicester South MP said this was a 'daily occurrence' in the West Bank and told how he and George were staying with a man whose house was surrounded by others which had been 'taken over' by Israeli settlers. READ MORE: Aid workers describe Gaza as 'stuff of nightmares' as vital supplies denied by Israel He said that two settlers attempted to pressure their host into giving them his house in Hebron, allegedly telling him: 'You might as well give us this house, because we're going to take it anyway.' Adam added: "We saw first-hand aggressive Israeli colonisers, it was absolutely shocking to experience. "What was really alarming and what interested me, was many of these Israeli colonisers or settlers not only work with the protection of armed police, they seemed to be working in collaboration with armed police." Adam also told how he witnessed Israelis intimidating people of different faiths at sacred sites in Jerusalem, including Palestinian Christians worshipping at Easter. (Image: Daniel Bone) Elsewhere, George (above), the MP for St Ives, said that he had briefly been detained at Ben Gurion Airport while entering Israel, though was eventually allowed into the country. It comes after two Labour MPs, Yuan Yang and Atisam Mohamed, were denied entry to Israel after criticising the country's government. This was condemned by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who said it was "unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning" for MPs to be treated as they had. George argued that Israeli settlers illegally occupying the West Bank were more accurately described as "intruders or evictors". He said that he could sympathise with those who argued that a two-state solution, the official policy of the UK Government, was a "waste of political energy".
The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
What a leftwing leader needs to do to earn credibility
Owen Jones makes the case that a credible leftwing leader needs to win over alienated voters and dodge culture wars (The left needs to halt the UK's slide into Farageism. This is the kind of leader who could do it, 3 April). That starts by rejecting the terms left and right – where people sat in revolutionary France's national assembly does not accurately define today's politics. The leadership team of any new political movement must convince voters of two things. One: 'I trust these people to run the country.' Two: 'They have got my back.' Economic credibility requires exploding the austerity myth. Speaking as someone who ran an arm of government – successfully – I found that when you make the case, people, including businesspeople, think it's common sense. That keeping kids in poverty is economically illiterate. That investing in health and education makes us all wealthier in the end, and happier too. That public ownership will lower utility bills and improve services. That the climate crisis is real, and we must invest in a resilient future or see our economy crippled. Having someone's back means saying that we won't throw you under the bus for an easy headline. We will put your right to a secure home above your landlord's right to make a quick buck. We will put your kid's mental health above the right of global corporations to avoid regulations. We will fight your corner when you're victimised for being disabled, or black, or LGBTQ+. There is a truth to why governments can't afford to invest. Money flows to very, very rich people. They make 8% to 12% a year from parking money in big tech, utilities, property, finance and care homes, while the rest of us do the work and actually generate the wealth. That money needs to be taxed to pay for the safe, sustainable, prosperous society that everyone DriscollFormer North of Tyne mayor Owen Jones is right to some extent – a populist left with a charismatic front person is badly needed. However, his suggestion of Mick Lynch as such a leader is laughable. A new populist left alternative needs to think radically and organise broadly, connecting with and building alliances between social actors who are philosophically and/or theoretically critical of Labourism and the labour movement, especially the macho, workerist tendency that Lynch and others represent. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise is a good example of a project with some populist potential that is failing to break out of such a straitjacket. We should learn from SamphierBeckenham, London I agree with Owen Jones that Mick Lynch would be the ideal candidate to take on Labour from the left and stave off the sinister threat of Reform. However, I would suggest that, in the absence of Mr Lynch wanting to take up this mantle, the Independent Alliance should form into a political party and merge with the Greens and those seven Labour MPs recently suspended from the party for voting against the retention of the appalling two-child cap. Such a new party would not only be 15 MPs strong – three times the size of Reform's parliamentary presence – but would represent those predominantly middle-class former Labour voters who have turned to the Greens in disgust at Starmerism, and the traditional white working-class demographic in the 'red wall' seats and other similar constituencies. Only such a unified party of the left can hope to stave off Reform and provide the 'broad church' that Labour likes to tell us it is but so woefully is not, as the party's lurch to the right under Keir Starmer leaves us in no doubt as to where its priorities now WaltonBath Do you have a photograph you'd like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers' best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
