Palestinian Territories: Development Support

Lord Callanan Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

One of the reasons that the Prime Minister made the statement on recognition at the beginning of the Recess was specifically to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive. Some of the actions that the Government of Israel have taken recently have made that less likely and harder to envisage, so we have taken the decision that, should the situation remain as it is at the UN General Assembly at the end of this month, we will take what I think is the hugely significant step of recognising the state of Palestine.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, following on from the answer that the noble Baroness has just given, of course, the Government lose no opportunity to lecture us on how much they support and are bound by the concept of international law. The Montevideo convention sets out in international law the four criteria that constitute a state. Will the noble Baroness tell the House specifically which of those criteria are filled by the state of Palestine that they are about to recognise?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I am afraid that there is nothing in my tone this afternoon that has been in any way lecturing or hectoring. I have been clear about our reasons for reaching a position where we feel that we have to consider recognising the state of Palestine. We will do that in the right way, in the situation that I have described and that the Prime Minister has described at great length, at the General Assembly at the end of September.