THE UK halting trade deal talks with Israel in response to the bombardment of Gaza is “irrelevant”, an MP suspended by Labour has said, as she accused the party of a “pathetic” lack of action over Israel.
Zarah Sultana, who remains suspended from Keir Starmer’s party after voting to get rid of the two-child benefit cap, has said the decision to call off negotiations was part of Labour’s “mealy-mouthed, empty rhetoric” over Israel’s assault on the enclave.
This week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described Israel’s actions as “monstrous” and warned that a “dark new phase in this conflict” had been reached.
He also described the Israeli government as “extremists”.
Lammy said the shift in the UK Government's position came in response to the blockade on aid to Gaza, Israel's devastating bombing of the territory and high-level leaders' public statements about ethnically cleansing the territory.
However, there has been no movement on arms sales, with the UK continuing to send parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, which have been used in Gaza.
One move Lammy did make was announcing the suspension of negotiations for a new free trade deal with Israel, while Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was summoned to the Foreign Office.
But Sultana (below) told the Sunday National the change in approach from Lammy is “too late” as she ripped into a “pathetic” response to the bombardment by the UK Government.
She said. “These words [from Lammy] are 18 months too late and at the same time as delivering them at the despatch box, you are still continuing the supply of lethal fighter jets, you are still complicit in the destruction of Palestinian lives and you’re still sending out spying surveillance flights.
“The halt in the 2030 trade deal is so far away in the future that it is irrelevant. People need the genocide to be stopped now. They need the starvation to end now, and we’re being told about all these things in the future.
“He couldn’t even expel the Israeli ambassador. It’s pathetic.”
Just hours after Lammy said he condemned Israel’s actions “in the strongest possible terms”, the UK Government sent a Shadow R1 spy plane from the Cyprus base RAF Akrotiri to monitor Gaza.
The RAF describes Shadow R1 planes as being capable of “comprehensive intelligence gathering” that is “particularly valuable to ground commanders”.
The UK Government said it will share information gathered from the flights with the Israeli military, but only if it was deemed relevant to securing the release of hostages held by Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Despite Lammy announcing the suspension of around 30 arms sale licences to Israel back in September, analysis of Israeli import data has revealed UK firms have exported thousands of military items to Israel.
At a hearing in the High Court earlier this month, the UK Government defended its decision not to include parts for F-35 fighter jets in the suspension of licences.
Labour’s lawyers have argued that the evidence does not support findings that a genocide has taken or is taking place in Gaza – despite the UK Government publicly insisting that any determination of genocide is for the courts and not them.
The UK Government is obliged to block export licences if there is a clear risk they will be used to breach international law.
The National also reported how Labour licensed exports of more military equipment to Israel in the final three months of 2024 than the Tories did for all of 2020 to 2023, according to figures from the UK Government and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).
Sultana raised this statistic in the House of Commons last week and asked Lammy how “he sleeps at night”, but the Foreign Secretary accused her of being “keen on clickbait”.
Sultana told The National Lammy’s response was an “insult” to the more than 50,000 Palestinians who have been killed by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
“These statistics are not social media headlines, they are official export data from the Government tied to weapons that are being directly sent from the UK being used in a genocide that is being investigated by the International Court of Justice,” she said.
“The Foreign Secretary brushing them off as clickbait isn’t just dismissive and offensive, it is an insult to the tens of thousands of Palestinian lives that have been destroyed by the very weapons that this government is licensing.”
Sultana added: “His response is incredibly beneath the office of Foreign Secretary. This is someone who is actively licensing arms exports who could stop a genocide and instead he tells a backbencher in his party who has had the whip suspended because she doesn’t believe children should be in poverty that she is keen on clickbait.
“That says more about him than it says about me.”
The Coventry South MP also hit out at Health Secretary Wes Streeting who was heard to say her question to Lammy was “cheap” in the Commons.
“I don’t think calling out genocide is cheap. It is a duty,” she said.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been approached for comment.
