Gareth Thomas says move is ‘political judgment’ after challenge from 40 members of House of Lords
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The UK’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state is compliant with international law, a minister has said, after a group of peers raised concerns that it did not meet the legal bar.
Gareth Thomas, a business minister, said it was a “political judgment” that Palestine should be recognised and that the government believed it was compatible with the criteria for statehood under the Montevideo convention, a treaty signed in 1933.
In a significant shift in the UK’s approach, Starmer said on Tuesday that recognition would take place before 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, which has been backed by allies.
