Boycotting Donald Trump’s lavish state banquet is the best way to send a message to the US president about Gaza, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has insisted.
Sir Ed acknowledged that Mr Trump “won’t listen to me directly”, but said he hoped his decision not to attend the Windsor Castle dinner on Wednesday would stimulate a public debate that may reach the US president’s ears.
The US leader is “the one person in the world who can stop this humanitarian catastrophe”, the Lib Dem leader also told the PA news agency.
Sir Ed has meanwhile written to the Prime Minister, calling on him to raise with Mr Trump the US refusal to grant Palestinian officials visas ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
Speaking ahead of Mr Trump’s touchdown on British soil, the Lib Dem leader said deciding not to attend the state banquet hosted by the King was “difficult” given his “huge respect” for Charles.
Sir Ed said: “What changed my mind was what we’ve seen in Gaza over the summer. The children thinned from starvation so much that you can see their skeleton, the lifeless bodies of children killed while they queued for water, the emaciated hostages that Hamas paraded.
“My view is that President Trump is the one person in the world who can stop this humanitarian catastrophe.
“He can ring up Prime Minister Netanyahu and stop the fighting and the killing and get food in, and he can ring up the Qatari government and governments in the Gulf and get them to force Hamas to release the hostages.”
The Lib Dem chief acknowledged Mr Trump “won’t listen to me directly”, adding: “I’m quite humble enough to recognise that.”
But he said he wanted to see a “debate in the British press before, during, and after his visit to be about his (Mr Trump’s) power to stop the killing, to get the hostages released, to get the food in, to get a peace where we can work to the two-state solution”.
While Sir Ed said interest in reducing American tariffs on UK steel is important, Britain risks missing “this moment where he can actually stop a war” if the president is not pressed on Gaza.
The Lib Dem leader insisted that there was no chance he would have been able to speak directly with Mr Trump at the banquet, telling PA: “I think I’m going to have more influence on what the Americans hear from the British side through making this stand and hopefully giving leadership to people who are worried about what’s happening.”
Elsewhere, in a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Ed said the Prime Minister should push for the coming UN summit to be relocated to Geneva if President Trump continues to block Palestinian officials from attending.
Representatives from the Palestinian Authority, including its President Mahmoud Abbas, have been denied US visas, effectively locking them out of the General Assembly while conversations about the future recognition of Palestine are expected to take place.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Sir Ed wrote: “President Trump will touch down in the UK this evening as he begins his state visit.
“When he does so, will you call on him publicly to reverse his decision to block the attendance of Palestinian officials at the UN?
“And, if he refuses to act, will you step up and take the lead to ensure that Palestine can be represented – and call for the High-Level Summit on September 22 to be relocated to Geneva?”
