David Lammy told he 'may end up in The Hague' due to Gaza 'cowardice'

The National

2 days ago

Conservative former Home Office minister Kit Malthouse made the comments as the Foreign Secretary was delivering a statement to the House of Commons on the Middle East on Monday evening.
In his speech, Lammy announced a £60 million humanitarian aid package for Gaza, which he said would be used to scale up food assistance programmes, water and sanitation services, and maternal and children's healthcare.
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But he stopped short of suggesting the UK would be recognising a Palestinian state – which he is under pressure from MPs to do so ahead of a UN conference at the end of this month – instead reiterating that the Government was committed to a two-state solution.
After his speech, Malthouse told the Commons: "Speaker, like in this House, I'm frankly astonished at the statement of the Foreign Secretary.
"At a time when we've got daily lynchings and expulsions on the West Bank, dozens being murdered as they beg for aid.
"I'm just beyond words really at his inaction and frankly complicity by inaction at what is going on.
"He himself said there's a massive prison camp being constructed in the south of Gaza.
"He knows that leading genocide scholars from across the world now are ringing the alarm bells, and yet he has the temerity to show up to this House and wave his chequebook as if it's going to solve his conscience.
"Can he not see that his inaction – and frankly, cowardice – is making this country irrelevant?
"Can he also not see the personal risk to him, given our international obligations, that he may end up at The Hague because of his inaction?
"And finally, really, frankly, an appeal to the Labour backbenches: We can't get your leadership to change their minds, only you can if you organise and insist on change."
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Lammy began to respond: "I understand the fury that the right honourable gentleman feels, but I have to tell him–"
Malthouse then interrupted: "Why don't you feel it?"
Lammy continued: "I have to tell him that it demeans his argument when he personalises it in the way that he does.
"It is unbecoming, and not something the House expects, particularly of its more senior members."
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, the Foreign Secretary continued to insist that the UK is not sending weapons to Israel which could be used in Israel, despite the continued export of F-35 parts.
Lammy told Sky News: "I am satisfied that we are not sending arms that could be used in [[Gaza]], but we do send other things, for example, kit and equipment that is used by NGOs or journalists."
When it was pointed out to him that the UK was continuing to export F-35 fighter jet parts, the Foreign Secretary admitted that this was "an exception", but that it was a "small" one.
"We cannot guarantee that there are not parts in the global pool that we buy into that could be used in Gaza," he told Sky News.
"That is the exception. It's a small exception, but I think your listeners will understand when there are other theatres of conflict, particularly here in Europe, that it is important that we don't bring down the whole of the F-35 arsenal across the world."