LABOUR Cabinet ministers are placing pressure on Keir Starmer to immediately recognise the state of Palestine, according to reports.
It comes as a delayed UN conference on Gaza and recognising Palestine as a state, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, is set to take place in New York later this month.
According to the Guardian, the Prime Minister is understood to have been urged by a number of senior ministers in different Cabinet meetings over recent months that the UK should take a leading role in issuing recognition.
The Labour Government has previously said it plans to formally acknowledge Palestine as part of a peace process, but only in conjunction with other western countries and "at the point of maximum impact", without elaborating on what that means.
The Guardian reports "a growing sense of desperation and horror inside the Labour Cabinet in recent weeks", particularly on Israel's killing of starving Palestinian civilians and its attacks on humanitarian agencies.
One Cabinet minister told the paper: “We say that recognising Palestinian statehood is a really important symbol that you can only do once. But if not now, then when?”
And in a Commons intervention on [[Gaza]] on Tuesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting called for the recognition of [[Palestine]] "while there's still a state of [[Palestine]] left to recognise".
He said: "I sincerely hope that the international community can come together, as the Foreign Secretary has been driving towards, to make sure that we see an end of this war but also that we recognise the state of Palestine while there is a state of Palestine left to recognise.”
The Labour Government has faced increasing pressure to recognise Palestine as a state by its own MPs, while the SNP have urged ministers to "stop the excuses" and heed the words of European allies.
The comments came as French President Emmanuel Macron visited the UK earlier this month, where he said that recognising the state of Palestine was "the only path to peace".
