Labour Minister breaks ranks, blasts government over Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
19 May 2025 15:50
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A cross-party coalition of UK lawmakers, including a Labour minister, is demanding the government release its genocide assessments on Gaza and justify continued arms exports to "Israel" amid mounting legal scrutiny.

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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy leave after attending the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP)

A UK Government minister has defied the Labour Government by publicly denouncing its handling of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza and condemning its continued arms exports to "Israel" as “abhorrent".

Labour peer and Transport Minister Peter Hendy joined over 60 cross-party MPs and peers, excluding Reform UK, in signing a letter organized by Amnesty International. The letter calls on the government to immediately publish all its assessments regarding the risk of genocide in Gaza.

Signatories include Stephen Flynn and all SNP MPs at Westminster, Labour’s Andy McDonald and Nadia Whittome, Conservatives Kit Malthouse and Sayeeda Warsi, Liberal Democrats Alistair Carmichael and Angus Macdonald, Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville-Roberts and Ben Lake, Greens Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, and independents such as Jeremy Corbyn.

While the UK Government claims it is conducting “ongoing assessments” of the situation in Gaza, the only disclosed evaluation, revealed in a London High Court hearing on UK arms exports to "Israel", concluded in September 2024 that there was “no serious risk of genocide occurring".

However, the joint letter argues that the situation has significantly deteriorated since that assessment, citing "Israel’s" renewed aggression on Gaza launched in March 2025 despite a ceasefire agreement. Lawmakers point to conclusions by UN experts and Amnesty International that genocide is already underway.

Calls grow to publish genocide assessments since March 2025

The letter demands that the UK Government publish:

All genocide risk assessments conducted since March 2025
The criteria, methodology, and evidence used in those assessments
The most recent date and outcome of such evaluations
A clear statement on whether the UK now believes there is a serious risk of genocide in Gaza

It states, “If these subsequent assessments have not led you to conclude that there is a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, triggering your obligation to prevent, we must ask how adequate your assessments are.”

The UK, as a party to the Genocide Convention, has a legal obligation to act when there is a serious risk of genocide. The signatories challenge the government to explain how it has not met this threshold based on current evidence.

The letter comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, declared that "Israel" would assume full control of Gaza. This marks an escalation in what many experts, including UN bodies, describe as an unfolding genocide.

UK government defends arms sales despite genocide allegations

The lawmakers also denounced the Labour Government’s recent legal defense of its continued export of F-35 fighter jet components to "Israel". In a court submission, the government claimed, “It is entirely unrealistic to suppose … any possibility of genocide would have been altered by any such curtailment on the use of F-35s.”

In response, the letter states: “It appears that the position of the UK Government is that it is legitimate to provide weapons to states committing genocide if the assessment is that the impact of doing so would be minor."

"That is an abhorrent position to hold. If that is not the government’s position, then you must urgently correct the record,” it added.

The UK Labour government authorized approximately $160 million in arms exports to "Israel" between October and December 2024, exceeding the total authorized under the Conservative Party during its entire 2020–2023 tenure. This data, obtained from newly released strategic export licensing records, highlighted an unprecedented acceleration in British military support to "Israel" as its aggression on Gaza continues and intensifies.

By contrast, the Conservative government licensed around $144 million in arms sales to "Israel" over four years, with annual totals of $39 million in 2020, $30 million in 2021, $52 million in 2022, and $23 million in 2023.

The findings, compiled by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), have drawn strong condemnation from rights advocates and civil society groups.

“This is the Labour government aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” said Emily Apple, CAAT’s media coordinator. “It is sickening that instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo, Keir Starmer’s government has massively increased the amount of military equipment the UK is sending to Israel.”