Is Starmer’s Palestine Move About UK Politics?

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00:00This significant announcement from Starmer just in the last few minutes about the two-state solution.

00:05Was this expected when he recalled government from recess?

00:08Well, he was certainly under a lot of pressure to recognise Palestine as a state from his MPs.

00:14It was more of a domestic crisis than an international one for Labour internally,

00:20because they had this huge pressure from their backbenches and from their voters

00:25to do something about Palestine, to speak out against Israel,

00:29and to address the humanitarian situation in a meaningful way.

00:33And this sort of, if you, you know, we will recognise Palestine as a state at the UN in September

00:41if you don't agree to a ceasefire, is a new development.

00:45And it strikes me as a slightly odd one, because what it suggests is that if Israel does suddenly

00:50agree to a ceasefire and flood the area with humanitarian aid,

00:56then Labour will not recognise Palestine as a state.

01:00What it's essentially saying is that it will recognise Palestine as a state

01:04if it's being persecuted and oppressed.

01:08This is an odd dynamic, and it feels to me a little bit like a sort of desperate measure

01:13from a group of people who wanted to go on summer holiday,

01:17have been dragged back because of a crisis within their government

01:20and have come up with this as a sort of fudged solution.