The mayor of London has urged the government to “immediately” recognise a Palestinian state.
In a post on social media, Sir Sadiq Khan shared a statement condemning the alleged killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by the IDF and lambasting the conditions they face.
“The international community – including our own government – must do far more to pressure the Israeli government to stop this horrific, senseless killing and let vital life-saving aid in. Nothing justifies the actions of the Israeli government”, he said.
“The UK must immediately recognise Palestinian statehood. There can be no two-state solution if there is no viable state left to call Palestine”, Khan added.
Reacting to his statement, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said Khan “should spend less time trying to play on the world stage, where his Labour government has already undermined Britain's standing significantly, and focus on fixing his own mess in the capital.”
She added: “Sadiq Khan has an appalling record of governance in London - from presiding over record levels of crime, to businesses abandoning our great capital city, to his failure to get London moving, he continues to let London down.”
The Jewish Leadership Council has expressed “disappointment” at Khan’s announcement.
A spokesperson told the JC: “The community fabric in this country is under ever increasing strain. An international conflict has seen a rise in antisemitism across the UK including in London where the impact has included lower attendances at synagogues whose worshippers must avoid regular protests which involve anti-Jewish chants and placards.
“UK unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State will not call one into existence or improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians. We are therefore deeply disappointed that the Mayor of London has chosen to intervene in support of a gesture to the detriment of community relations in the city he represents.”
The government has not given any indication that it intends to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state.
On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told Parliament’s liaison committee that the government would only advance recognition “as a contribution to the peace process at a time most conducive to the prospects of peace”.
He made similar comments earlier this month during French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the UK.
One senior Labour source, who is Jewish, accused Khan of undermining the government's more balanced approach to the issue of Palestinian statehood.
"We don't elect mayors to freelance on national politics or international diplomacy,” they told the JC, adding: “Keir and David [Lammy, the foreign secretary] have taken a mature, balanced approach.
"We need to recognise Palestine - nobody serious doubts that - but at a time when it will make a real difference to a lasting, two-state solution; not fritter it away because it makes us feel like we're 'doing something'.
"Given his strong track record with the Jewish community, this gesture politics is deeply disappointing from Sadiq."
Nonetheless, the Guardian has reported that Starmer is facing pressure from within his own cabinet to take a more robust stance against Israel and in favour of an immediate recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“We say that recognising Palestinian statehood is a really important symbol that you can only do once. But if not now, then when?” one cabinet minister is reported to have said.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, while taking Parliamentary questions, Health Secretary Wes Streeting condemned Israeli attacks on health workers in Gaza.
Responding to a question on the matter from his Ilford constituency neighbour, Jas Athwal MP, Streeting went on to say: “I sincerely hope that the international community can come together, as my right honourable friend the foreign secretary has been driving for, to ensure that we see an end to this war, but also the recognition of the state of Palestine while there is still a state of Palestine left to recognise.”
On Monday, during a nearly two-hour Middle East update to MPs from David Lammy – in which only two MPs raised the plight of Syria’s Druze community – several Labour MPs, including Dawn Butler, Helen Hayes and Stella Creasy, also urged the foreign secretary to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.
Responding to Creasy, Lammy confirmed that the UK would be participating in a French-Saudi conference on the issue of Palestinian statehood.
However, he added: “At that conference our French and Saudi Arabian colleagues are talking not about recognition, but about how we get to two states and get an enduring ceasefire.”
Khan isn’t the first Labour mayor to urge the government to immediately recognise Palestinian statehood.
Last month, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham did the same in a letter published by the Guardian alongside Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and Labour select committee chairs Andy Slaughter and Dame Emily Thornberry.
They called on Starmer to: “Recognise Palestine alongside Israel now, and without further delay or equivocation. Recognition does not punish Israel. It offers hope to those in Palestine and Israel working for peaceful coexistence, mutual security and equal rights.”
Last year, Khan apologised to Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis after he’d implied that Mirvis’ criticism of the Mayor’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza shortly after Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, was motivated by Islamophobia.
He told broadcaster Mehdi Hasan: “I'd ask those Jewish people to just pause and reflect on their response to me calling for a ceasefire … What motivated them to come out in the way they did against the Mayor of London, and not the Mayor of Greater Manchester – I'll give you a clue, he's not called ‘Ahmed Bourani’, he's called Andy Burnham, whereas I'm called Sadiq Khan."
He later said he “deeply” regretted making the comments and that he considered him a “friend”.
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