Keir Starmer is facing backlash this morning, just hours ahead of a planned meeting between him and the Prime Minister of Israel at No. 10 Downing Street. The meeting will take place less than 24 hours after Sir Keir condemned Israel’s unilateral missile strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.
Pro-Palestine protesters will take to Whitehall ahead of the visit, which No. 10 has insisted is necessary to push for an end to the war in Gaza. While his Israeli opposite, Isaac Herzog, is from a different political party from Benjamin Netanyahu, he has received backlash for saying that the “entire [Palestinian] nation out there … is responsible” for the October 7 massacre of Jews. Last night, one of the candidates to replace Angela Rayner as deputy Labour leader condemned the planned meeting and said it should not go ahead.
Asked if Sir Keir should be welcoming Mr Herzog, Paula Barker MP told Times Radio: “I don’t think he should.”
“President Herzog has made some appalling comments about Palestinians all being guilty, and he once signed a missile that went on to kill innocent men, women and children. Diplomacy is important, but being honest with allies is also important.
“If they really wanted to, they could have a conversation on the telephone. They don’t have to welcome him to Downing Street.”
It came after Sarah Champion, the Labour MP chair of the foreign aid committee, demanded: “The UK has recognised the ‘real risk’ of genocide perpetuated by Israel, so unless this meeting is about peace, what message are we sending?”
60 MPs and peers signed a letter last Friday demanding that Britain bar Mr Herzog from entering the country.
Former Labour shadow Chancellor John McDonnell blasted: “I am appalled at the decision to allow this representative of a government that is systematically killing Palestinian children on a daily basis to visit our country.
“The prime minister is proving to be absolutely tone deaf to the desperate plight of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming feelings of revulsion of the British people at the brutality of the government Herzog represents.”
Yesterday top Cabinet minister Wes Streeting warned that Mr Netanyahu is “leading Israel to pariah status”, something No. 10 did not slap down.
“He needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel,” he added.
This week a letter from former Foreign Secretary David Lammy revealed that the UK government does not consider Israel’s actions in Gaza to constitute genocide.
In a letter to Sarah Champion’s committee the Foreign Office said genocide only occurs when mass death is a result of a “specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’.
“The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”
Mr Herzog’s office say his visit is to “show solidarity with the Jewish community, which is under severe attack and facing a wave of antisemitism.”