Labour MP urges government to condemn Trump’s ‘barbaric’ Gaza comments
A former Labour frontbencher has urged the government to condemn Donald Trump’s “barbaric” plan for a US takeover of Gaza as “ethnic cleansing”, in a move that risks reigniting internal party splits over the Middle East conflict.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a former shadow mental health minister who ran to be deputy leader, said the government needed to express “in no uncertain terms” its disapproval of the suggestion that Gazans be resettled into neighbouring countries.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, seen by Sky News, the Labour MP for Tooting said the US president’s comments risked sounding the “final death knell” for the internationally-supported two-state solution, in which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside the state of Israel.
“I would like to express my outrage and ask that you take urgent steps to prevent this, including voicing the government’s disapproval in no uncertain terms,” she wrote.
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“This is not a humanitarian gesture of compassion – it is the forced removal of a population and a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza,” she added.
Dr Allin-Khan, who was one of the 56 Labour MPs to break ranks and vote for a controversial SNP ceasefire motion last year, cited definitions of ethnic cleansing by the United Nations and the European Union as “using force or intimidation to remove from a given area, persons of another ethnic or religious group”.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan was one of 56 Labour MPs who voted for a ceasefire in Gaza
“The world intervened in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and roundly condemned ethnic cleansing in Rwanda,” she added. “We must meet these plans to remove millions of Palestinians from their homes, naked as they are, with the same robust response.”
She asked: “Will the government stand firm and condemn President Trump’s stated aim to take over and forcibly remove the Palestinian population of Gaza?
“Further to this, can you confirm that there will be no UK support or involvement in this disgraceful plan? Finally, will you work with the international community to support UN resolutions opposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza?”
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Two states is ‘only’ solution
Mr Trump sparked international alarm overnight when he laid out his plans for the Middle East in a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The US president called Gaza a “demolition site” and said the two million people who currently live there could go to “various domains”.
He did not rule out sending US troops to the region, and said the US would “develop” Gaza and create “thousands and thousands of jobs”.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs,” Mr Trump said, adding that Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live.
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Trump: ‘We’ll own Gaza’
Mr Trump suggested that Palestinians could be relocated to Egypt and Jordan. Both countries, other Arab nations and Palestinian leaders have all opposed this move.
The US president’s comments come at an awkward time for Sir Keir Starmer, as he seeks to build a close relationship with the US and stop the UK being subject to the punitive tariffs that have been imposed on China, Mexico and Canada – although the latter two countries have since earned a 30-day reprieve as negotiations take place.
The UK government has sought to distance itself from Mr Trump’s remarks, with Mr Lammy saying the UK has “always been clear in our belief that we must see two states”.
“We must see Palestinians live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza and the West Bank,” he added.
And speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the UK’s position was that Palestinians “need to be able to return to their homes and then start to rebuild them”.
Read more:
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However, he stopped short of criticising Mr Trump for his remarks, saying that he would “not provide a running commentary on the pronouncements of the president”.
Asked if he was being disparaging, Mr Reed replied “not at all” and argued that Mr Trump should be given “credit for the role he played in securing the ceasefire in the first place”.
The ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was agreed last month after more than a year of war following Hamas’s terrorist attack on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and saw 250 others taken hostage.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack, according to local authorities.
UN officials have estimated that around 200,000 Palestinians have made the journey to the north of the Gaza Strip after Israel lifted its closure of the area following the ceasefire deal.
Politics
Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
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