The Conservatives have accused Sir Keir Starmer of “rewarding terrorism” by recognising Palestinian statehood.
Matt Vickers, the deputy Tory chairman, told BBC Breakfast: “At this point in time we should be working with the US, we should be doing what we can to get those hostages home, those hostages who have been held in captivity for almost two years in the most awful of circumstances.
“That should be our concentration. Our concentration should be on that incredibly devastating humanitarian crisis that’s going on in Gaza, how we get that aid into there and how we ensure that a terrorist organisation is never allowed to control Palestine.
“We need to be working on that agenda, we need to be taking things forward. So this is rewarding terrorism, a terrorist organisation like Hamas who’ve committed terrible atrocities in Israel and this is their reward. They’ve claimed victory on it already. Hamas are already saying that this is a victory for them and the evil things that they did on Oct 7.”
'This is rewarding terrorism'
