Keir Starmer to recall cabinet as calls grow for UK to recognise Palestinian state

British PM Keir Starmer will recall his cabinet next week from summer recess to discuss the situation in Gaza, as the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory raises pressure on the UK prime minister to take additional action, Report informs via The Financial Times.

The move, set out by Downing Street on Sunday, comes as Starmer is under mounting pressure from MPs, including cabinet ministers, to accelerate plans to follow French President Emmanuel Macron in recognising a Palestinian state.

The UK prime minister has repeatedly condemned the situation in Gaza, where Israel this weekend lifted severe aid restrictions that had pushed the besieged enclave to the brink of famine.

But he has so far resisted calls to recognise Palestine as a state — a move made by Spain, Ireland and Norway last year — saying the timing must be right as part of a wider peace process. Senior Labour figures have claimed Starmer is blocking the move because he wants to stay close to the US.

Starmer is set to urge President Donald Trump to restart the Israel-Hamas peace process when the pair hold talks in Scotland on Monday, alongside support for Ukraine and lowering US tariffs on steel.

The Trump administration has been putting pressure on US allies not to recognise a Palestinian state, arguing it would make it harder to find a solution to end Israel’s 21-month war against Hamas in Gaza.

But on Friday, more than 200 UK MPs — including more than 100 backbench Labour MPs — urged Starmer to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

Health secretary Wes Streeting, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and the party’s Scottish leader Anas Sarwar are among those urging the prime minister to move on the issue, according to senior Labour officials.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is also backing the push for UK recognition of a Palestinian state, according to people familiar with the matter.

Government officials have said that recognition of a Palestinian state by the UK is a question of “when, not if”, pointing to a pledge by Labour to do so in its election manifesto last year.

Recalling cabinet during parliament’s recess, which began last week, will fuel speculation that the government is moving towards earlier recognition.

But officials cautioned that no decision had been made and stressed that the UK was also responding to the humanitarian conditions inside Gaza by assisting with airdrops of aid into the enclave and sending extra military planners to Jordan to help co-ordinate the airdrops.

Asked on Sunday when the UK might recognise a Palestinian state, James Murray, a junior Treasury minister, was non-committal but said the move needed to be part of a wider “pathway to peace”.

“We need to make sure that we use recognition to galvanise change — you can only recognise a state once,” Murray told Sky News. “140 countries have already recognised Palestine but the suffering is continuing.”

On Sunday, Israel appeared to respond to mounting international criticism by reopening several aid corridors into Gaza, amid warnings from the UN and aid groups of the growing risk of death from starvation in the strip.

Israel has curbed the flow of aid into Gaza for months while trying to replace the UN as the main distributor with a controversial, privately run aid distribution scheme known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), alleging that the militant group Hamas was stealing large volumes of aid.

Local officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to get aid in recent months, many in attacks by Israeli troops while trying to reach the four sites run by GHF. The Israeli military has acknowledged firing shots on multiple occasions, but claimed it did so after people approached troops in a way they deemed threatening.

Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, said recognition of a Palestinian state by the UK would “have exceptionally dangerous repercussions — not only for Israelis but for the west as a whole” and would be “nothing less than a reward for terrorism”.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy said on Sunday that Israel’s reopening of aid corridors was “essential but long overdue”, as he called for “a ceasefire that can end the war”.