MPs calls to recognise Palestine rejected after UK-Palestinian memorandum of understanding
The UK’s Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer speaking in parliament on 29 April 2025
Dania Akkad reports in Middle East Eye on 30 April 2025:
The UK Middle East minister, facing over a dozen calls from a cross-section of MPs for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state, said that “practical measures” are still needed before such a state would be possible.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East Hamish Falconer made his comments in a debate on Tuesday following this week’s visit of the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa to London and the signing of a UK-Palestinian memorandum of understanding.
The memorandum affirms the UK’s belief in “the alienable right of the Palestinian people” to an independent state, with a two-state solution as “the best way to achieve Palestinian statehood”. It was also accompanied by £101m for humanitarian relief, Palestinian economic development, and strengthening Palestinian Authority governance and reform.
But on Tuesday, several MPs pushed the government to recognise a Palestinian state immediately.French President Emmanual Macron has said that his country plans to recognise a Palestinian state soon, potentially as early as June, at a UN conference on the two-state solution.
“Does my honourable friend agree that now is the time to take the next serious step, which is to finally recognise the state of Palestine?” said Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who chairs the parliamentary foreign affairs committee. “The best time to do that might be alongside the French in New York in June.”
Falconer responded that, while the question of recognition was raised repeatedly in parliament, the government’s position remained the same. “We do wish to recognise a Palestinian state, and we wish to do so as a contribution to a two-state solution,” he said.
Sense of urgency
“We will make the judgment about when the best moment is to try to make the fullest possible contribution.”
Scottish National Party MP Chris Law said he had recently represented the UK parliament at the Inter-Parliamentary Union where over 1,200 MPs from 188 countries passed a unanimous resolution supporting a two-state solution.