Keir Starmer insisted Palestinians ‘must be allowed home’ today after Donald Trump unveiled an extraordinary plan for the US to take control of Gaza.
Labour MPs have been voicing fury at the prospect of ‘ethnic cleansing’ after the US president’s explosive intervention overnight threatened a delicate ceasefire.
At a joint press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC last night, Mr Trump suggested Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip could be permanently resettled elsewhere.
He proposed the US taking over the vacated region – potentially using troops – and turning it from a ‘demolition site’ into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’.
Asked about the comments at PMQs, Sir Keir said he had two images ‘fixed in my mind’ from recent weeks – with the first being Israeli hostage Emily Damari being reunited with her mother.
‘The second was the image of thousands of Palestinians walking, literally walking, through the rubble to try to find their homes and their communities in Gaza – they must be allowed home,’ he said.
‘They must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two state solution.’
On a visit to Kyiv this morning, Foreign Secretary David Lammy tried to walk a diplomatic line, saying Mr Trump was ‘right’ to want to rebuild Gaza.
However, he backed a ‘two state’ solution and argued that Palestinians should be ‘able to live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza, in the West Bank’.
Mr Trump said: ‘The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.
‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.’
‘If it’s necessary, we’ll do that, we’re going to take over that piece, we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.’
He added: ‘I do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East,’ he said, adding that he had spoken to regional leaders and they supported the idea.
Asked who would live there, Trump said it could become a home to ‘the world’s people’. He also raised questions about the future of the West Bank.
Left-wing Labour MPs reacted angrily, with Richard Burgon saying it would be a ‘war crime’. Zarah Sultana said it was ‘ethnic cleansing, plain and simple’.
Asked about the comments, Mr Lammy insisted: ‘Donald Trump is right. Looking at those scenes, Palestinians who have been horrendously displaced over so many months of war, it is clear that Gaza is lying in rubble,’ he said.
‘We have always been clear in our view that we must see two states and we must see Palestinians able to live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza, in the West Bank. That is what we want to get to.
‘That is why it’s important we move out of phase one of this hostage deal, to stage two and then to phase three and reconstruct Gaza.
‘We will play our part in that support for reconstruction, working alongside the Palestinian authority and Gulf and Arab partners.
‘That’s the guarantee to ensure that there is a future for Palestinians in their home.’
On a round of interviews this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted the UK still supported a two-state solution.
Asked by Sky News whether the UK Government would support Mr Trump’s ideas, he said: ‘I can tell you what the UK’s position on this is, and our view is that Palestinian civilians have been through a living life there for the last 14 months.
‘They need to be able to return to their homes and then start to rebuild them. They will need an awful lot of support from the international community to do that.’
He said that ‘lasting peace’ could only be secured through a two-state solution.
Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour mocked Mr Trump for wanting a ‘good, fresh, beautiful piece of land’ on the Mediterranean coast.
‘For those that want to send them to a happy, nice place let them go back to their original homes inside Israel,’ he said.
A spokesman for Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, said: ‘Trump’s remarks about his desire to control Gaza are ridiculous and absurd, and any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region.’
Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said she would ‘wait and see’ what happened about the remarks, insisting she would not give a ‘running commentary’.
Dame Priti told Times Radio: ‘These are remarks that he’s made overnight and obviously it’s provoked a number of comments.
‘We will have to wait and see, because no one country will be able to do this on their own. Our partners, our allies, in the Gulf states and the Middle East, we’ve already heard from the Saudi government as well, they will all have a role to play.
‘And, you know, there’s something else that we’ve all been discussing for many years, in fact, which is also the Abraham accords and normalising relations between […] with the Middle East and the United States.’