Recognise Palestine now, ministers tell Starmer

Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.

- Eleni Courea

The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, are understood to be among those who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.

The prime minister was facing a growing clamour to take action amid the international outcry over Israel's actions, with charities warning that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza City have tripled in two weeks.

Britain, France and Germany said yesterday afternoon that the Gaza "humanitarian catastrophe must end now" and called on Israel to "immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid".

"Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," they said in a joint statement.

Speaking after a call with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, Starmer said the "continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel's disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible".