Commenting on the vote in Parliament calling on the UK Government to recognise the state of Palestine, Nia Griffith MP said,
“I was privileged to attend this important debate and to vote for the motion which urges the Government to “recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel as part of a contribution to securing a negotiated two state solution.” It was a passionate debate and it was encouraging that 274 MPs (mostly Labour but with some Lib Dems, Conservatives and smaller parties) came in and voted for the motion. Only 12 MPs actually voted against with many including Government ministers preferring simply to stay away.Despite the vote being non-binding it is a symbolic historic vote. The motion received a lot of interest and support from the British public, civil society, faith groups and trade unions and their lobbying of their MPs showed there is growing support for recognition of the state of Palestine amongst the British public.”
“We recognised Israel in 1950 and it is high time we fulfilled our historic responsibility and recognised Palestine. Back in 2012 134 countries at the UN voted for recognition of Palestine, and it was very disappointing that the then Foreign Secretary William Hague abstained on behalf of the UK, in spite of Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander asking him to support recognition. With the peace process now stalling, recognition of Palestine by such an influential country as the UK would, as I said in the debate, give strong support to the moderate voices in Palestine and help to restart the peace process.”
“Labour has reaffirmed by this vote that a future Labour Government will recognise the State of Palestine.”