Starmer says Labour to no longer recognise Palestine state unilaterally

The leader of UK's Labour Party Keir Starmer has said that the party will no longer abide by its previous promise to recognise a Palestinian state unilaterally, and will now only do so as a result of a two-state solution with Israel.

Starmer told the Jewish Chronicle that Speaking Labour was "committed to the two-state solution."

"Recognition has to be part of a process, and an appropriate part of the process," he said.

Wayne David, the Labour party's shadow Middle East minister, said the move was a departure from "T-shirt politics".

"It’s not about the Labour government going, 'right we recognise Palestine’, big deal!" David said, adding that the party's previous position would have “counted for very little apart from antagonising some people”.