Starmer: UK Will Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Agrees to Gaza Ceasefire
London (Quds News Network)- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced the UK will recognize Palestine as a state at a UN meeting in September, unless Israel takes more steps to end the “appalling situation” in Gaza, including agreeing to a ceasefire.
In a significant shift in the UK’s approach, Starmer said that recognition would take place ahead of the UN general assembly in New York this September, unless Israel agreed to a series of conditions set out in the UK-led eight-point peace plan.
These were for Israel to take “substantive steps” to end the “appalling situation” in Gaza and commits to a “long term sustainable peace, including through allowing the UN to restart without delay the supply of humanitarian support to the people of Gaza to end starvation, agreeing to a ceasefire, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank”.
Starmer spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before the announcement, reports said.
Starmer’s announcement came after intense pressure over the mounting humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and internal calls to follow France in acknowledging Palestinian statehood. France announced it would recognize the state of Palestine at the UNGA in September.
My statement on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and our plan for peace including the recognition of a Palestinian State. pic.twitter.com/aMUCNwJb9z
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 29, 2025
The prime minister recalled his cabinet from their summer break on Tuesday to approve the plan after he held talks with Donald Trump in Scotland on Monday. The US president said he did “not mind” the UK taking a position on the issue, even if he would not, the Guardian reported.
Starmer told his ministers that, because of the catastrophic situation on the ground in Gaza and the diminishing prospect of reaching a two-state solution, now was the right time to move to this position.
“Ultimately, the only way to bring this humanitarian crisis to an end is through a long-term settlement,” he told reporters after the meeting. “Our goal remains a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, but right now, that goal is under pressure like never before.”
He added: “I have always said that we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process. At the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution, with that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act.”
The roadmap follows an agreement to work towards “lasting peace” in the region with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, at the weekend.
The move comes as UN-backed hunger experts warned on Tuesday that a “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding in the strip and called for “immediate action”, while health officials announced the death toll from Israeli attacks had passed 60,000.
Downing Street had insisted that formal recognition of Palestine was a matter of “when, not if”, with the Labour government facing calls to take further action as UK public opinion hardened over horrific scenes on the ground.
Earlier this month, nearly 60 Labour MPs demanded that the UK immediately recognise Palestine as a state, after Israel’s defence minister announced plans to force all residents of Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.
Starmer told reporters that the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which was “getting worse by the day”, was behind the timing of the UK’s decision, along with concern that the possibility of a two-state solution was receding.
“We’ve been saying for some considerable time now we need to get more aid in at volume and at speed, and the situation now is absolutely catastrophic, which is why I’ve taken this decision today in relation to the two state solution and the recognition of Palestine.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Britain bears a “special burden of responsibility” to support the two-state solution as he announced the UK’s plan to recognize Palestinian statehood.
“The situation on the ground continues to worsen and the two-state solution is in peril,” he told a UN conference.
Lammy called Israel’s rejection of a two-state solution “morally and strategically wrong”.
“The Netanyahu government’s rejection of a two-state solution is wrong; it’s wrong morally; and it’s wrong strategically. It harms the interests of the Israeli people, closing off the only path to a just and lasting peace, and that is why we are determined to protect the viability of a two-state solution.”
“And so it is with the hand of history on our shoulders that His Majesty’s government, therefore, intends to recognise the state of Palestine when the UN General Assembly gathers in September here in New York.”
