Middle East

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister (Keir Starmer)]

Before I update the House on the peace process in the middle east and my trade visit to India, I want to put on record my utter condemnation of the vile antisemitic terrorist attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester, which killed two Jewish men: Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz.

Antisemitism is not a new hatred. Here in Britain, Jews have had to deal with the shameful reality that their buildings, their way of life and their children need extra protection. We must also be crystal clear that while this was an attack on Jews because they were Jews, the Islamist extremism that motivated this sick individual is a threat to every citizen of this country. It is an attack on British values, British security and the British decency that holds our communities together.

Moreover, we can see clearly that antisemitism is on the rise in Britain once again. We will scale up the protection we provide for Jewish people. We will set out new measures to prevent hatred abusing the democratic right to protest. We will stop at nothing to root out antisemitism. The same applies to the arson attack on the Peacehaven mosque. An attack on British Muslims is also an attack on us all, so we condemn this despicable crime and the poison of anti-Muslim hatred. We will fight against hate in all its forms.

I now turn to the middle east, and to words I have longed to say in this House for a very long time: the surviving hostages are free, the bombardment of Gaza has stopped, and desperately needed aid is starting to enter. As a result of the peace plan led by President Trump, we have the chance—it is a chance—to bring a terrible chapter in history finally to a close. It is a moment of profound relief for the House, this nation, and indeed the whole world, but it is tempered, of course, by the knowledge that for the hostages and their families, the loved ones of those killed on 7 October and the innocent civilians in Gaza—the dead, the bereaved, the starving—this has been two years of living hell.

I think of Avinatan Or, who has family ties to the United Kingdom, returned at last to his family and his girlfriend Noa. Avinatan and Noa were taken from that music festival two years ago, the footage of their abduction filmed by Hamas—evil committed to camera. I have met Avinatan’s family, and heard for myself the agony that they suffered for two long years, waiting for him to come home. His frail condition is shocking evidence of the appalling treatment he must have endured. We await the release of the deceased hostages; their families need the chance to grieve, so we demand that they are returned to their families immediately.

My thoughts are also with the people of Gaza, almost all of whom will have lost family members—husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and, worst of all, sons and daughters. Over 20,000 children were killed. I think of people like Yara Yaghi, who I met a year ago. She was 17 years old and was studying at college in Hertfordshire. She had lost 44 members of her family—a pain that cannot be erased, even as we welcome the peace today.

Mercifully, the killing and destruction has now stopped, and aid is beginning to enter Gaza. To be clear, we urgently need to see more aid, and faster. All restrictions must now be lifted. The need for food, sanitation, healthcare and shelter are all still acute. While the signing yesterday was historic, what matters now is implementation and getting help in as quickly as possible.

The UK is providing £20 million in additional humanitarian support to get water, sanitation and hygiene products to tens of thousands of civilians across Gaza. That is in addition to the support we are already providing. Our two field hospitals in Gaza have already seen 600,000 patients, and earlier this month we evacuated the third group of sick and injured Palestinian children to the United Kingdom. They are now being treated by the NHS. We will work with the UN and our partners to go further and faster in providing the aid that is so desperately needed.

Let no one be in any doubt that none of this would have been possible without President Trump. This is his peace deal, delivered of course with President Sisi of Egypt, the Emir of Qatar and President Erdoğan of Türkiye. Alongside our partners, we offered the UK’s full support to these efforts. We have worked behind the scenes for months with the US and Arab and European nations to help deliver a ceasefire, get the hostages out, get aid in and secure a better future for Israel, Gaza and the west bank. I am proud of our contribution.

We are in a position to play this role precisely because of the approach this Government take. That includes our decision to recognise the state of Palestine. This move, taken alongside our allies—France, Canada, Australia and others—helped lead to the historic New York declaration, in which, for the first time, the entire Arab League condemned the atrocities of 7 October, urged Hamas to disarm and, crucially, demanded that it end its rule in Gaza.

But let me be clear that while we celebrate the relief of peace today, making that peace last will be no less difficult a task. Along with our allies, we will have absolute focus in the days and weeks ahead on the relentless implementation of the peace plan. That is no small challenge, so we stand ready to deploy our diplomacy and expertise in three key areas. The first is in supporting the reconstruction of Gaza, which is an immense task. The devastation defies description. This will require a truly international effort; we are ready to play our part, starting at a conference this week, here in the United Kingdom, hosted by the Minister for the middle east, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer). Secondly, to support transitional governance arrangements in Gaza, we will continue to work closely with the Palestinian Authority on the vital reforms that they need to make. Thirdly, we will help ensure security in Gaza through a ceasefire monitoring process and planning for the international stabilisation force. Drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a full role in the decommissioning of Hamas weapons and capability, because, as the House knows, there can be no viable future for Gaza and no security for Israel if Hamas can still threaten bloodshed and terror, so we will work to put that threat out of action for good.

This is the first real chance we have had of a two-state solution since the Oslo accords over three decades ago, so we are fully committed to this, because a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state is the only way to secure lasting peace for the middle east. I have been clear all along that that must be our goal, so we will work now to follow through on the 20-point peace plan and deliver it in full, including by supporting a dialogue to agree on a political horizon for peaceful co-existence.

Finally, I want to update the House on my discussions with Prime Minister Modi last week in Mumbai. India is a growing force on the world stage, and is on track to have the third-largest economy by 2028. In addition to the bond that we already share—the living bridge of family and history—we are also united by the future and the incredible opportunities that we see before us. That is why, back in July, we signed a historic trade deal, opening up new opportunities for British businesses in India. That is why, last week, I led the biggest British trade delegation to India ever. We announced that more British universities are opening campuses in India, making us its leading international education provider. We are also deepening the UK-India technology security initiative to boost opportunities for our brilliant tech sector. We also announced new deals and investment, including in advanced manufacturing, defence, car production and Bollywood film making here in the United Kingdom. Those investments into the United Kingdom are worth £1.3 billion, and they will create 10,600 jobs. That is real change that people will see in their communities up and down the country.

I set that out because it speaks again to our approach on the world stage, as do our deals with the United States and the EU, and the approach that we bring to crises and conflicts as well. Instead of threatening to walk away or indulging in the cheap political theatre that comes from castigating our allies—allies we need to deliver peace and economic stability in a dangerous, volatile world—we stay in the room. We trust in diplomacy, and we back the reputation, talent and pride of this country to change the world to the benefit of the British people. This is a politics of national renewal, in which we work with our partners, rather than against them—a politics that solves problems, rather than exploiting them, and that believes that our openness to the world is what helps us take control of our future, rather than shutting the door and hoping for the best. That is how the Government deliver for Britain. I commend this statement to the House.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Leader of the Opposition.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

May I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her words about the hostages a moment ago? I know how heartfelt they are.

I was surprised and saddened that she spent more time attacking what we actually did to help the process than even mentioning the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, without setting out in terms the number of people who have been killed, who are starving and who have been subjected to denial of aid. When the immediate task for any serious Government is to work with allies to get that aid in at speed, I would have expected at least an acknowledgment of that terrible situation. It shows, yet again, just how far her party has slid from a serious statesperson’s approach to diplomacy.

This is not the time for a fight about what role any individual played. I am proud of what Steve Witkoff said about our National Security Adviser. He was negotiating this, he knows the role that we played, and this House should be proud of that. We were able to play that role only because of the relationship that this Government have with the Trump Administration: we are a trusted partner, working both before this peace deal and afterwards. And yes, I did discuss recognition of Palestine with President Trump when he was over here, because that is what grown-up, responsible partners do—unlike the discussion here. I stand by my words that in New York that was the first time that other countries in the region were clear in their condemnation of Hamas. That was a key aspect of what has now happened.

On her other questions, the Leader of the Opposition will know, from the reforms that have already been committed to, that the Palestinian Authority will not tolerate any election of individuals or parties that are not committed to a peaceful process. That is an absolute red line, it is part of the agreement and it is what we have been talking to other allies about for a very long time. On healthcare cases, as I reported, we have had such cases coming to the United Kingdom, as well as students. We are extremely careful in the checks that we carry out on everybody who comes to this country.

I return to the fact that this is a historic deal. It is important for the region and it is important for the world. It is to be celebrated across this House because of the relief it brings to the hostages and their families in particular, and to the many thousands of people in Gaza. As I said, I was surprised and saddened that the Leader of the Opposition has overlooked a really important part of the resolution of the conflict.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the International Development Committee.

[Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab)]

I thank the Prime Minister, his Ministers and all the officials who I know have been working incredibly hard behind the scenes for the past two years to get to this historic point. He is right; it is a chance for peace. I am nervous about the next stages, but it is definitely a chance to get aid flooding into Gaza. Will he give us some more details about how that will happen in practice, with Israel controlling all the borders? Will he also speak about the role of UNRWA? I say to the Leader of the Opposition that UNRWA is a UN organisation that acts as the local authority, providing education, medical services, sewerage and desalination. It is an organisation that is central to supporting the Palestinians facing starvation and dealing with the consequences of genocide. I urge the Prime Minister to continue to rally the international community to put pressure on Israel to let that aid flood in and to ensure that the Palestinians are central in the future of their communities.