On 21 September 2025, the UK Government announced that it was formally recognising the State of Palestine. This was announced alongside similar recognitions by Canada, Australia and France. Britain has openly supported a two-state solution in the Middle East, with two states, Israel and Palestine, coexisting peacefully. However, until this point, it had not formally recognised Palestine as a state. In 2014, the House of Commons voted in favour of recognising Palestine, but this was a non-binding vote. When the issue of Palestinian statehood has been raised in the UN General Assembly, Britain has traditionally abstained from voting.
The reason for these abstentions is manifold. Firstly, Britain has argued that the fact of Palestinian statehood should emerge from Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, not through being imposed by the UN, as this is more likely to result in a stable political solution. Secondly, Britain has tried to carefully balance its relationship with both sides in the conflict, given its strong cultural and political ties with both. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Britain has tried to stay aligned with the United States on the issue and has not wanted to upset its biggest strategic partner.
However, in July 2025, Keir Starmer announced that the UK would recognise Palestine by September unless Israel changed its approach in Gaza. In particular, he called for a ceasefire in Gaza. That has not happened and last week Israel pressed an assault into Gaza City. Starmer, has therefore now honoured that July pledge.
Undoubtedly, there is a domestic political consideration in play for Keir Starmer. In the 2024 General Election, five English seats were won by Independents. In all five seats, Labour finished in second place. In all the seats, there was a sense that the election had become somewhat of a referendum on the situation in Gaza. In addition, other seats, like that of West Streeting (majority of 528) and Jess Phillips (majority of 693), were in danger of being lost with Gaza being a key campaign issue. The recognition of Palestine will be widely welcomed amongst the grassroots of the Labour Party. With a new left-wing party emerging through the creation of Your Party, instigated by Jeremy Corbyn, it will be hoped that the decision shows the left of the party are not being ignored on this issue.
In the UK, the recognition of governments is a royal prerogative power. This means that the power used to belong solely to the Monarch (and technically still does), but is now exercised by the government. It is therefore up to the UK Government, not Parliament, to judge whether a potential state meets the criteria of statehood under international law (this is covered in the global section of this newsletter).
The UK Prime Minister possesses a wide range of royal prerogative powers. These include appointing their Cabinet and deciding whether or not to order military action. As these powers do to emanate from Parliament, Parliament are unable to effectively scrutinise them. In addition, any legal challenge is likely to be found non-justiciable (beyond the scope of a court to make a judgement).
Yet, the timing of the announcement is worth noting. Parliament has just gone into recess until 13 October, meaning it is not sitting, to accommodate the conferences of the three largest parties. Starmer’s announcement has drawn criticism from other political parties. Kemi Badenoch has said that the recognition of Palestine “rewards terrorism” and was a “pandering to the Labour left”. However, making the announcement during parliamentary recess avoids Urgent Questions or Emergency Debates being proposed and allows Keir Starmer to focus on the feedback from the Labour Party, which will be overwhelmingly positive.