220 MPs call for Keir Starmer to recognise Palestinian state

More than a third of MPs have signed a letter to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Some 220 MPs from nine political parties have backed the call, more than half of them Labour, arguing that UK recognition would send a “powerful” message and a vital step toward a two-state solution.

The letter piles fresh pressure on the PM after France made a commitment to recognise Palestinian statehood within months.

But in a statement after an emergency phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Sir Keir said recognition of a Palestinian state had to be part of a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution”.

In his statement, Sir Keir said: “Alongside our closest allies, I am…