Lammy: The UK has suspended trade negotiations with Israel over Gaza aid blockade
The foreign secretary has told parliament the UK has suspended trade negotiations with Israel over its Gaza blockade. David Lammy said the Israeli ambassador had been summoned.
Key events
Here is David Lammy in parliament earlier challenging his shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel after he said the Conservative frontbench was “refusing to confront the appalling reality of what is happening in Gaza and what the Netanyahu government is doing.”
Lammy: Israel’s blockade of Gaza aid is an ‘affront to the values of the British people’
The UK’s foreign secretary, announcing in parliament that the UK was to suspend talks with Israel on a new trade deal, summon the Israeli ambassador, and impose more sanctions on the occupied West Bank settler movement, said Benjamin Netanyahu’s blockade of aid reaching people in Gaza was an “affront to the values of the British people.”
Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March, and launched a renewed military offensive.
David Lammy said the offensive was not the way to bring remaining hostages home, called for Israel to end the blockade of aid and condemned what he called “extremism” in some sections of Israel’s government.
“We cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration. It is incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship,” Lammy told MPs.
“Frankly, it’s an affront to the values of the British people. Therefore, today, I’m announcing that we have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement.”
Earlier the prime minister, Keir Starmer, also commented on the situation, saying:
I want to put on record today that we’re horrified by the escalation from Israel. We repeat our demand for a ceasefire as the only way to free the hostages, we repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Downing Street said arms export licences to Israel would remain under review when asked if the UK could ban more arms going to the country, PA Media reports.
Asked if the UK had considered banning further arms export licences to Israel, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “I think our longstanding answer to that is we always keep such arrangements under review.”
The prime minister and the chancellor were not in parliament during that debate on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as they have been out on a visit to Lidl to try to promote what they describe as the benefits of the recently announced trade deal with the EU.
PA Media reports that speaking in a backroom of the shop with Lidl staff, Rachel Reeves said:
I recognise the cost-of-living pressures that people have been under the last few years. You will know that, and your families and you will know that, from your customers as well, that they haven’t all gone away and there is still more that we need to do.
I want you to know that in every action that we take as a Government our priority is to improve the living standards of ordinary working people, and the trade deals that we have secured with the US, with India, and now the EU, are all with that front of mind.
Keir Starmer told broadcasters “We are in Lidl because the deal that we struck yesterday will mean lower prices in our supermarkets. Shelves like this. That is really good news for customers of Lidl, for the staff of Lidl, and for all of those involved in food and agriculture.
“There is a real buzz. I have just been with the staff. They are very pleased because they know for their customers, for their families, it makes a real difference.”
Incidentally, just rowing back slightly, before the debate on Israel and the Occupoed Palestinian Territories, right at the end of the UK-EU trade deal session, Conservative MP Mark Francois raised a point of order, claiming that the prime minister Keir Starmer earlier may have “misled the house”.
He said Starmer was “guilty of sophistry at best, and potentially something worse,” and was reading out sections of a document about trade dispute mechanisms.
The deputy speak had little truck with it, telling Francois “I thank the Hon gentleman for his point of order, which he will know was not a point of order, and not a matter for the chair, but he has put it on the record.”
Prime minister Keir Starmer then said “I won’t descend into silly language like he did,” in response, and the deputy speaker brought that session to a close.
Conservative MPs Mark Pritchard and Kit Malthouse both raised points of oder, seeking further votes or debates on the issue in the near future, “on the basis that this situation is so dire and so acute,” Malthouse said.
The debate after the foreign secretary’s statement has ended. David Lammy concluded it by saying:
I’ve not been able to answer all the questions in the hour-and-a-half that I’ve been on my feet, but I hope that our friends in Israel have seen the strength of feeling across the House today.
The Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives has again raised the question of the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state as part of the government’s stated support for a two-state solution.
Andrew George said to foreign secretary David Lammy:
Although it is long overdue, I warmly welcome the sentiment behind the government’s announcement today. [I and some other MPs] visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories last month, and what we saw there was absolutely shocking. Others have described it as apartheid. I think it’s actually worse than that.
Now, the foreign secretary has said that the question of the recognition of the Palestinian State is one which was stuck in a process. But can he not, at least today, accept that, that he can recognise the right of Palestinians to statehood and democracy?
Lammy suggested it would not be an effective tactic, telling George:
What we’re discussing with France, as a member of the UN security council, a permanent member, is how we can actually affect things on the ground.
He will recognise that others have recognised the Palestinian statehood, [but] that we would not be having this debate if it had affected things on the ground.
As the country’s chief diplomat, I stand by the seriousness of actually making a decision that might bring about change on the ground,
Here is a clip of David Lammy earlier in parliament announcing the suspension of trade talks with Israel and calling on Benjamin Netanyahu to end Israel’s aid blockade of Gaza.
Three of the indpendent MPs have spoken during this debate on the foreign secretary’s statement on “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Jeremy Corbyn asked about the supply of arms from UK to the Israel. David Lammy said:
He asked me a similar question a few weeks ago, and I gave him the answer – that we suspended ourselves. That was a sober decision I made. They’re not being given to Israel for use in Gaza at this time.
Zarah Sultana, currently independent MP for Coventry South as she is suspended from Labour, asked the foreign secretary how he could sleep at night. In a terse exchange, she said:
Children are starving. Families have been wiped out. Hospitals destroyed. Yet the government in court claims that there is no evidence Israel targets civilians. The foreign secretary is personally responsible and refuses to ban all arms sales to this genocidal state. So like many across Britain, I have to ask the foreign secretary, how do you sleep at night?
She had quoted some figures which she said were export licences granted to Israel. Lammy said:
Well, the honourable lady has raised figures that I don’t recognise. She’s raised, once again, the issue of arms sales to Israel. I banned arm sales that could be used in Gaza.
He then accused her of being “keen on clickbait.”
Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South, said he wished the trade deal talks suspension applied more broadly, telling the foreign secretary:
I, too, cautiously welcome the foreign secretary’s passion and his statement, albeit a little bit late for 51,000 Palestinians, but nonetheless I welcome on his statement.
The foreign secretary talks about the suspensions of negotiations on new trade deals. Would a suspension not be more effective on existing trade deals?
And if indeed, the foreign secretary believes the behavior of the Israeli government is abominable, can I ask why a government minister parted with the Israelis just last week, while 370 Gaza were massacred and the world was mourning for them? Does that not undermine trust in the UK’s role in this conflict?
Kemi Badenoch has posted a clip of her earlier exchange with Keir Starmer. She has accompanied the video with this message: “Listen to Labour laugh when I say the public want honesty from government. That says it all.”
She seems to have missed the point that Labour MPs weren’t laughing at the idea that government should be honest, or that is what the public wants, they were laughing at the idea of being lectured on honesty by someone who had served in the previous Conservative administration.
Listen to Labour laugh when I say the public want honesty from government. That says it all.
They can’t negotiate. They concede before talks even begin — then pretend tiny gains are historic victories.
Gave away UK territory in Chagos. Settled for scraps in US and India deals.… pic.twitter.com/65wdAjpXi9
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) May 20, 2025
In response to an MP saying it was Hamas, not Israel, holding up a ceasefire deal in Gaza, David Lammy has said the UK “must speak up” about Israel’s blockade of the territory.
The foreign secretary said:
I don’t think I’ve been at this dispatch box on the six occasions that statements have been made on this subject, when I have not condemned Hamas, [when] I have not condemned what they did on October the seventh, [when] I have not condemned those that are keeping hostages. And let me be clear, I actually believe Hamas are holding hostage the Palestinian people.
But just as you can hold that, you can also hold in your heart and in your mind that it is morally reprehensible to continue this blockade to reduce 400 humanitarian aid points to four this is impossible. It’s intolerable, and of course, the United Kingdom must speak up against it.
I suspect video clips of David Lammy saying, as he did, “I have not condemned Hamas, I have not condemned what they did on 7 October, I have not condemned those that are keeping hostages,” will be widely shared without the preceeding context, and he may come to regret having phrased it this way.
