Green Party co-leader calls for halt of arms sales to Israel in maiden speech

The Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer has used her maiden speech in Parliament to call on the UK government to stop arms sales to Israel.

Denyer said that Britain’s international reputation “has been compromised by our government’s refusal to clearly condemn the Israeli government’s disproportionate response to the horrific terrorist attacks of 7 October.”

The new MP for Bristol Central said that “the UK’s continuing arms sales for use against Palestinians” which she claimed was “in persistent breach of international law … must stop, and I am clear too that demanding it should not be controversial.”

She, along with Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay and MP Ellie Chowns, also backed an amendment to the King’s Speech, submitted by left-wing Labour MP Zarah Sultana, that calls on the government to ban arms sales to Israel and “support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages, to immediately recognise the state of Palestine, to restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, to drop the challenge to the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction in Gaza.”