KEIR Starmer has said that a future Labour government wouldn’t immediately recognise Palestinian statehood in a major policy U-turn.
The Labour leader, speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, said there was “no risk” of the party adopting the policy introduced during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of recognising a Palestinian state from “day one” of a Labour government.
Starmer added that Labour was “committed to the two-state solution” and that it would make the move as part of any future peace process, which he noted was Labour policy pre-Corbyn.
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He said: “Recognition has to be part of a process, and an appropriate part of the process.”
The move confirms recommendations made by Labour’s policy forum as well as an op-ed written by Shadow Foreign Minister David Lammy in November, who said the party "will strive to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, as part of efforts to contribute to securing a negotiated two-state solution".
Wayne David, Labour’s shadow Middle East minister, also confirmed the move according to the Jewish Chronicle.
He said: “We will recognise the state of Palestine at a point which will help the peace process once negotiations between Israel and Palestine and the others are taking place.
“It’s not about the Labour government going, ‘right we recognise Palestine’, big deal!”
He added: “We want to see a state of Palestine being established but there is not a state of Palestine now.”
He then went on to say that a two-state solution would only come to “fruition in a way which is acceptable to the state of Israel. That is the way to bring about peace – a mutually agreed two-state solution.
“The objective is to achieve lasting peace. It will require negotiations of great detail over a long period of time. There are many complex issues to be sorted out.”
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