The prime minister has been told the “UK cannot be silent” after Donald Trump declared the United States plans to “take over” the Gaza strip.
Speaking alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said the two million Palestinian people living in the territory, which he described as a “demolition site”, would go to “various domains”.
He vowed to rebuild the strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Reacting to the proposal, the UK Liberal Democrats called Trump’s comments “bizarre” and “dangerous.”
Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said: “Donald Trump’s proposal for Gaza is bizarre but also dangerous. It shows casual disregard for the rights and aspirations of Palestinians and threatens the basis for peace at this fragile moment.
“The UK cannot be silent — we must make clear that this proposal is damaging, wrong and would amount to a severe breach of international law.
“Now is the moment for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, to make clear our commitment to a two-state solution based on 1967 borders.”
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A member of the UK cabinet appeared to hit back at Trump’s plan for Gaza on Wednesday morning, arguing Palestinians “need to be able to return to their homes.”
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, reiterated the government’s support for a two-state solution to the conflict and said Israel should exist alongside “a free and viable Palestinian state”.
“Palestinian civilians have been through a living nightmare for the last 14 months, they need to be able to return to their homes and start to rebuild them”, Reed told Sky News.
He rejected that he was being disparaging of the US president in any way, and gave Trump credit for helping secure the current ceasefire.
He added: “I think we should give Donald Trump credit for the role he played in securing the ceasefire in the first place, but it is the view of the UK government that Palestinians should be able to return to their homes.”
Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, also commented on Trump’s proposal on Wednesday morning. She said the US president had set out a “vision” for rebuilding Gaza but suggested he was getting ahead of himself.
Patel said given a ceasefire had only recently been agreed, any rebuilding was still “some way off yet”.
Asked if Trump had set out a “smart” plan, the shadow foreign secretary told the BBC: “Everyone recognises the fragility of the entire situation. We are still in a ceasefire with three phases, we are not through the first phase.
“Coming to the rebuilding is of course phase three and having a vision and what we heard overnight absolutely sounds like a vision in terms of rebuilding, creating hope, opportunity, prosperity for the people of Gaza, that is obviously an end state.
“But how to get there and what we have heard overnight is something that I think we are all going to be following.”
She added: “We have all been speaking about a two-state solution for many, many years, in fact decades. When the ceasefire was announced clearly that was a big aspiration, perhaps a staging post on where we could actually end up but I think the rebuilding side, phase three, is some way off yet.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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