Keir Starmer has Just Given a Masterclass in How to Lose Votes Fast.

Right, so only Keir Starmer could make a big announcement that the vast majority of us would get on board with and agree with, but manage to do it in such a way that we all still end up hating him for it instead. Palestinian recognition by the UK is decades overdue, but instead of just doing it, the brylcreemed berk decides to put arbitrary conditions on it that both incentivise Israel to go faster and harder in their genocide and their annexation plans, whilst also offering himself a way out of Palestinian recognition by the time we get to September, which is when he’s decided this will happen. Israel has essentially been told to scale back its apartheid and genocide back to an acceptable level, or the UK will finally side with their victims. He’s given Israel the power to prevent the UK from recognising Palestine, so who is in charge here? What Starmer has done here is beyond just unacceptable, it is utterly grotesque - the Palestinian people have a right to self determination - that is not a bargaining chip to be used to put pressure on their oppressors to end their forced starvation and given Starmer has also apparently told MPs that Palestinian recognition was not going to be conditional before then going ahead and putting these sociopathic conditions on that, and with the litany of lies that have come to define Starmer’s leadership of labour for the last 5 years, why should we believe he means any of this anyway?
Right, so children are starving to death in Gaza. The World Food Programme and United Nations agencies have warned that famine thresholds have been exceeded, with malnutrition among children skyrocketing and preventable deaths mounting daily. More than 60,000 Palestinians have now been killed during twenty-one months of relentless bombardment and siege, according to Palestinian and UN data. Entire neighbourhoods have been razed, water and electricity cut off, aid convoys attacked, and hospitals destroyed. Yet even amdist all of this, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, has announced that he will wait until September before the UK recognises the State of Palestine and even then, he’s put conditions on it.
Starmer’s pledge was presented as a diplomatic watershed moment. This was big, he was going to do something we could all agree with at last. He stated that the UK would formally recognise a Palestinian state, unfortunately it got followed by a series of big buts. It wouldn’t happen until the United Nations General Assembly in September, giving Israel another 2 months to do their worst, but then came the bigger but – that is, unless Israel took substantive steps to end the war in Gaza, allow humanitarian aid in, halt West Bank annexation, and commit to a credible peace process. Palestinian recognition, put in the hands of their oppressors, who wants anything but that to happen, but equally don’t want to take orders from a political pygmy like Starmer. What is already a long overdue step, Starmer has screwed up horribly. Why is 21 months not long enough already? Palestinians are dying of starvation daily, for families fleeing bombed-out homes in Rafah or Deir al-Balah or Gaza City or anywhere else, Starmer’s words offered nothing but a chilling deadline: they have two more months to survive while the UK waits for their oppressor to moderate its genocide to an acceptable level of genocide, that is the inference is it not? Starmer deems there to be an acceptable level of genocide. The former human rights lawyer lets not forget. He never did believe in anything but the money and the prestige did he? He can’t have done, not after this surely?
It is hard to imagine a more grotesque inversion of morality and law. Palestinian statehood is not a bargaining chip to be dangled before Israel. It is not a diplomatic carrot designed to coax a genocidal regime into slightly less depraved behaviour. Under international law, the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination is inalienable. The UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (1960) pick another there’s plenty to choose from, because all of them are unequivocal: all peoples have the right to freely determine their political status. That right does not depend on the consent of their coloniser, nor can it be suspended while they are starved and slaughtered.
Starmer’s conditionality is more than a delay. It is a psychotic betrayal. It hands Israel—the very state committing the genocide—the power to prevent Palestinian recognition. It emboldens Israel not to stop, but to escalate its campaign instead, knowing it has a window to complete its destruction before September. And it betrays the UK’s obligations under international law to act to end, not enable, atrocities.
The starting point for any serious discussion must be the law and of course we know that Starmer knows the law. Article 1(2) of the UN Charter commits member states to respect “the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.” It’s the first one. Even if Starmer skimmed it, you can’t miss that one. This principle is reiterated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (1960) further declares: “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” There is no asterisk there denoting a footnote exemption. Self-determination is not conditional on whether the occupying power behaves itself, nor to an arbitrary acceptable degree. It is not something to be earned by “progress” or “good conduct” by the oppressor. International law is clear: occupation, annexation, and colonisation do not extinguish the right to self-determination.
By making UK recognition of Palestine contingent on Israeli actions, Starmer has inverted this principle. He has given Israel a veto over it. If Israel agrees to halt annexation, allow humanitarian aid, and enter “credible peace talks,” to an extent the UK deems arbitrarily acceptable, the UK will delay recognition further. If it does not, recognition will happen—but only after the September UN General Assembly and only if frankly you trust Starmer to follow through. I can quite easily believe Israel can do nothing of the sort and he’ll still say otherwise and not recognise Palestine. He’s lied to often about too many things to not think like that. This is a profound betrayal of law and morality, everything Starmer built his reputation and career on supposedly. It tells Palestinians that their rights are not rights at all, but diplomatic leverage to be traded at the convenience of London and Tel Aviv. It tells Israel that its crimes will be tolerated as long as they are not too brazen. And it tells the world that Britain, the former colonial power that helped engineer Palestinian dispossession to begin with, still believes it can decide when the Palestinian people are allowed to exist.
Starmer has tried to have it both ways. In his public statement, he said recognition was “not in Israel’s gift,” echoing the language of international law. But the conditions he has imposed mean precisely that: recognition will only be confirmed if Israel fails to meet his arbitrary benchmarks. This contradiction has not gone unnoticed. Labour MP Dawn Butler revealed that MPs were briefed that recognition would be “unconditional,” only to be blindsided by the announcement of conditionality now. How often must Starmer lie before you start not taking him at his word on anything? It is part of a broader pattern with him. Starmer was elected Labour leader on ten pledges he has since abandoned: public ownership, defending free movement, ending NHS outsourcing. His handling of Palestine follows exactly the same trajectory: offer bold-sounding commitments, then watering them down to appease powerful interests.
His record on Palestinian rights is especially damning. In a now infamous October 2023 interview with LBC, Starmer endorsed Israel’s “right” to cut off water and electricity to Gaza—an act of collective punishment prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. He has never apologised for that statement, even as the siege of Gaza has become a textbook case of starvation as a weapon of war. Under his leadership, Labour has purged pro-Palestinian voices, banned conference motions using the word “apartheid,” and aligned itself closely with pro-Israel lobbying groups. This context matters. It shows that Starmer’s September pledge is not an isolated misjudgment but part of a broader hostility to Palestinian rights, dressed up in the language of “pragmatism.”
Starmer’s September deadline was not even a show of real leadership, it was jumping on someone else’s bandwagon as usual. It mirrors the timeline set by French President Emmanuel Macron, who also announced that France would recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly. Malta has since followed suit as well. Starmer is not leading. He is following and he’s even screwing that up. He has shown no willingness to chart an independent course rooted in principle. Instead, he has outsourced moral responsibility to others. Starmer’s defenders call this “diplomacy.” But true diplomacy requires courage—the courage to confront allies, break with consensus, and act when others hesitate. Starmer is doing the opposite. He is a shiver looking for a spine. He’s only tough when he’s punching down on the elderly or the disabled. He is hiding behind Macron’s coattails, waiting for France and the EU to move first and they’ve been too slow as well as it is.
Every day of delay allows Israel to escalate its campaign in Gaza and the West Bank, to demolish more homes, expand more settlements, and make Palestinian statehood ever more unviable, no matter how much Starmer sticks to claims of backing a two state solution which is functionally dead and buried already along with at least 60,000 people in Gaza.
Critics have rightly warned that the September deadline gives Israel a perverse incentive: it has two months to “finish the job” before recognition perhaps becomes unavoidable. It tells Israel: if you can make Gaza uninhabitable and fragment the West Bank before September, Palestinian statehood will be a meaningless gesture. This isn’t crystal ball gazing either. As the likes of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir have openly called for permanent displacement of Palestinians and annexation of the West Bank, Netanyahu now having offered Smotrich by way of appeasement, annexation of chunks of Gaza now too. Giving them a window to act is reckless in the extreme.
Israel’s reaction to Starmer’s announcement was swift and hostile.
Netanyahu accused Starmer of rewarding “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism” and punishing “its victims,” warning: “A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow and that appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails.
Starmer’s office said he “reiterated that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” while demanding Hamas release all hostages, sign a ceasefire, disarm, and accept that it “will play no role in the government of Gaza.”
No there’s no equivalent is there? 1200 Israelis died on October 7th, not that there is any excusing or minimising that, but 60,000 Palestinians have died at Israel’s hands since.
This rejection creates an immediate dilemma for Starmer all of his own making and if he had an political nous he’ would have seen it coming. If Israel refuses to meet his conditions, will he follow through and recognise Palestine in September? Or will he retreat, as I would frankly put money on, citing “insufficient progress” and pushing the deadline into the long grass? If he fails to act, his hypocrisy will be undeniable. If France and Malta follow through, he’ll be exposed as even more of a fool. He will have handed Israel a veto over Palestinian rights and then obeyed that veto. He will have shown that there is literally nothing Israel can do—no number of dead children, no level of famine—that will force Britain to uphold international law against them. This is now a test for Starmer, because Israel won’t walk back on what they are doing, so if he doesn’t follow through in September, the political fallout deserves to be catastrophic for him.
Recognition is not just a symbolic gesture. It carries real obligations. Under international law, once the UK recognises Palestine as a state, it must respect Palestinian sovereignty. This means treating Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as inviolable and ending any UK policy that aids annexation or occupation. Hamas are still the government of Gaza, so Starmer’s rhetoric and obviously their proscription, at least of their political arm, the governing arm when it comes to Gaza, would seem completely contradictory wouldn’t it? The UK must also end complicity in war crimes. End all arms sales, intelligence sharing, or financial assistance that could be used in occupation or genocide would be illegal under the Genocide Convention and Geneva Conventions. It is notable actually, that surveillance flights from RAF Akrotiri have apparently now ended, which is notable. Recognition would require the UK to end trade with settlement goods and prohibit British companies from operating in occupied areas. It would also require the UK to pursue accountability for crimes committed in Palestine, including through universal jurisdiction and cooperation with the International Criminal Court.
This is why recognition has been delayed for decades. It would force Britain to confront its own complicity and break with the United States, which has consistently shielded Israel from accountability. Starmer’s conditionality can therefore be seen as a way of avoiding these obligations. By dangling recognition as a bargaining chip, he hopes to appear principled without having to act in the end. It’s why I don’t believe no matter what, that he will follow through, but I’ll be delighted to be proven wrong.
Britain’s relationship to Palestinian dispossession is not new. As David Lammy has said, Britain bears a “special burden of responsibility” to recognise the State of Palestine due to its historic role in the region.
From the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the British Mandate’s facilitation of Zionist colonisation, the UK has played a central role in creating the conditions for the Nakba and the creation of Israel. It has since armed and diplomatically shielded Israel through decades of occupation and apartheid. Starmer’s delay is part of this legacy. It reflects the UK’s subservience to US policy, which views Palestinian statehood as a bargaining chip, not a right. It also reflects the European bloc’s desire to manage optics rather than enforce law. France, Malta, and now the UK have all set the same September deadline, revealing a coordinated effort to look “tough” on Israel without taking immediate action which is already woefully overdue.
This is not diplomacy; it is moral cowardice. It is the refusal to confront a genocidal ally because doing so would disrupt arms sales, intelligence cooperation, and the West’s strategic alignment in the Middle East.
What emerges from all of this is a portrait of a man who is not leading. Starmer is following. He is following Macron, following Washington, following the European consensus. He is triangulating between pro-Palestinian MPs and activists on one side and Israel’s defenders on the other. This is why his September deadline pleases no one. Pro-Palestinian voices see it for what it is: a delay that allows the genocide to continue. Israel’s government sees it as appeasement. And Starmer himself will be trapped in September, forced either to act and face Israel’s fury or retreat and confirm that his promise was a sham.
A leader with courage would recognise Palestine now, unconditionally, and pair that recognition with concrete measures: sanctions, arms embargoes, and full support for ICC investigations. Starmer is doing none of this.
If Starmer fails to follow through in September, the consequences will be devastating—for Palestinians and for the UK’s credibility. It will show that Britain is willing to ignore famine, mass killing, and apartheid rather than confront Israel. It will deepen Labour’s rupture with its base, particularly Muslim communities who already feel betrayed. And it will send a message to the world that international law is meaningless when the victims are Palestinian. The moral consequences are even graver. Starmer’s conditionality legitimises collective punishment and teaches future perpetrators that they can “earn” diplomatic rewards by moderating their atrocities just enough. It entrenches the idea that Palestinian rights are uniquely negotiable.
Recognition of Palestine is not a reward. It is not leverage. It is not a diplomatic carrot to coax Israel into behaving. It is a legal and moral obligation that is decades overdue. By making recognition conditional, Starmer has betrayed this principle. He has handed the genocidaire the power to veto its victims’ right to exist. He has set a deadline that incentivises escalation. And he has shown, yet again, that he lacks the courage to lead.
History will not be kind to this kind of cowardice. When the famine is documented in all its horror, when the graves of children are counted, when Gaza is remembered as a place that was deliberately made uninhabitable, no one will remember the clever diplomatic triangulation of July 2025. They will remember that Britain, faced with genocide, told the victims: wait two more months, and maybe we will recognise that you are human. That is not diplomacy. It is complicity. And it is unforgivable.
And if you don’t want to take my word for all of this then please don’t. Take the word of people in Israel themselves instead as to what their own nation is doing, because reports from the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel have no directly accused their own state of genocide and lay out with precision and legal detail as to why that is and it is unassailable and by rights this should finish Netanyahu for good. Check out all the details of that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch.
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