Exclusive: Rayner and Cooper understood to back action as 221 MPs sign letter calling for UK recognition of statehood
Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood by the Guardian to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.
The prime minister is facing a growing clamour to take action amid the international outcry over Israel’s actions, with charities saying that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza City have tripled in the last two weeks.
The UK, France and Germany said on Friday afternoon that the Gaza “humanitarian catastrophe must end now” and called on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid”. “Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” they said in a joint statement.
