By Emily Smith

 

LONDON, 18 Sept. - (ANA) - Sir Keir Starmer will this weekend formally recognise Palestine as a state once Donald Trump concludes his state visit.

 

The Prime Minister is reported to have delayed the announcement until after the state visit amid concern it could dominate their joint press conference at Chequers on Thursday.

 

Washington is firmly opposed to recognition and the president has previously warned such a move would reward Hamas.

 

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has said that though the US preferred an end to the war “sometimes when you’re dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that’s not possible.”

 

The announcement comes before a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York next week where Britain, France, Australia and Canada are among nations anticipated to extend recognition.

 

Sir Keir will not be attending the meeting, with the UK instead represented by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary and David Lammy, the Justice Secretary.

 

The Prime Minister announced in July that the UK would recognise Palestinian statehood unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire, committed to a two-state solution and ruled out annexation of the occupied West Bank.

 

Speaking at the time, he said: “I’ve always said 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.”

 

Israel has rejected the conditions, making recognition virtually certain.

 

Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.

 

“A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”

 

Pressure has since been mounting on the Prime Minister from within Labour, with a third of the Cabinet urging Sir Keir to act and more than 130 MPs signing a letter of support.

 

Ms Cooper described Israel’s attack on Gaza City as “utterly reckless and appalling”.

 

She said: “It will only bring more bloodshed, kill more innocent civilians and endanger the remaining hostages.”

 

But asked in August whether Britain was prepared to recognise Palestinian statehood with Hamas in power, a government spokesperson said: “We’ve been very clear that Hamas can have no role in the future governments of Gaza.

 

“That’s our long-standing position. We’ve also been very clear they must disarm, they must release all the hostages.

 

“We’ve also been clear that Hamas are not the Palestinian people, and it is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to have recognition along the lines of the steps that we’ve previously set out.”

 

He added: “We’ve also been very clear it cannot be in the hands of Hamas, a terrorist group, to have a veto over recognition of Palestine. That’s a right of the Palestinian people, and as the Foreign Secretary said, Hamas are not the Palestinian people.”

 

“But we’ve set out the steps, and we will make an assessment and update ahead of the UN General Assembly on how far the parties have met those steps.”

 

On Thursday night, Sir Sadiq Khan for the first time described the situation in Gaza as a “genocide”.

 

The Mayor of London told an audience at a people’s question time event: “I think what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide.

 

“When I see the images of the children starving, 20,000 children have starved because of the policies of the Israeli government, when I see the health system in Gaza collapsed, when I see the lack of supplies reaching people in need, when I see the famine that is man made, when I read the interim judgment of the ICJ, and then see a UN commission report this week, I think it’s inescapable to draw the conclusion in Gaza we are seeing before our very eyes a genocide.” - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/18 September 2025 - - -