Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure from Labour MPs to denounce Donald Trump’s plans to “take over the Gaza Strip” as an act of “ethnic cleansing”.
The US President told journalists at the White House that America would “own” the Middle Eastern region after the conflict with Israel subsides and transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Despite declaring that “everybody I have spoken to loves the idea”, Mr Trump has faced criticism for his plans to displace Palestinians to facilitate the luxury resort – with some describing the proposal as “ethnic cleansing”.
While the UK Prime Minister has contradicted Mr Trump by asserting that Palestinians “must be allowed to rebuild” as part of a two-state solution after the war is over, he has stopped short of condemning Mr Trump’s idea as an attempt to “cleanse” the Gaza Strip.
Backbench Labour MPs have not been so reticent, however, with a growing number of voices from within his own party urging Mr Starmer to take a stronger stand against the US administration.
“Diplomacy cannot be an excuse for silence in the face of ethnic cleansing,” Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, told The i Paper.
“This is a clear moral and legal red line. Either you stand for international law and basic human decency, or you don’t. If you can’t take a stand on this, then where will you ever draw the line?”
Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East added: “It is staggering that a President of the United States would sanction and rubber stamp ethnic cleansing.”
“It shows just how detached he is from international norms, but it’s imperative that the rest of the world resists and rejects that as a way forward,” he added.
Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East, told the Commons this week that Mr Trump had “lifted the lid on Israel’s plan” to ethnically clease Gaza and orchestrate the “forced displacement of Palestinians”.
“Nobody can any longer claim they didn’t know, and don’t know what’s going on – a genocide,” he added.
“[Palestinians] must be allowed home. They must be allowed to rebuild,” the Prime Minister said in response to Mr Trump’s comments.
“And we should be with them in that rebuild, on the way to a two-state solution.”