Exclusive: Winston Churchill’s grandson claims that the UK has to communicate with Israel after charity workers are killed in Gaza
Following the deaths of seven relief workers in Gaza due to an airstrike, Conservative Lord Nicholas Soames has joined the demands for the UK to cease equipping Israel.
Winston Churchill’s grandson Soames stated that the UK ought to convey a “message” on Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
In a letter, hundreds of eminent attorneys and judges—three of them former justices of the Supreme Court—stated unequivocally that the government’s continued arming of Israel violates international law.
“It’s probably time that that happened now, yes, I think if we’re determined to show that we are not prepared to countenance these ongoing disasters,” Soames responded when asked if the UK should stop doing so.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Israel has the right to pursue Hamas,” he continued.
The United Kingdom’s
Along with Hugo Swire, David Jones, Paul Bristow, and Flick Drummond, three Tory MPs, Soames is advocating for a halt to arms sales.
Mark Logan, a fourth Tory MP, demanded on Thursday that the UK’s arms sales to Israel be examined. He stated in a post on X that “we need to seriously reassess any weapon materials/arms exports to Israel in light of what has happened.”
During an interview with the BBC’s Ukrainecast on Thursday morning, Foreign Secretary David Cameron declined to comment on Israel or Gaza. For a meeting with other NATO foreign ministers, Cameron is in Brussels.
The Prime Minister’s Ethics Advisor Laurie Magnus has received a letter from the Liberal Democrats asking for an examination of whether further
On March 8, Cameron announced that he will be getting fresh legal counsel over Israel’s adherence to international law “in the coming days.” The government has declined to comment on the advice ever since.
Labour has called for ministers to publish the advice and to stop arming Israel if it states UK arms are at risk of being involved in a breach of humanitarian law. “It’s bad enough having a foreign secretary who avoids questions from MPs in the Commons,” David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said on X on Thursday.
“Now he’s not answering journalists on one of the biggest issues of our time. David Cameron must come clean and publish the legal advice on arms exports to Israel.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We keep advice on Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law under review and ministers act in accordance with that advice. The content of government advice is confidential.”
The chairty World Central Kitchen (WCK) has called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed seven members of its team. They died after a drone fired at their convoy of three armoured cars, all of which were clearly marked with the WCK logo on their roofs and sides.
Britons John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, were among the seven who died in the attack. The others killed were an Australian national, Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, 43; a Polish national, Damian Sobol, 35; a Palestinian, Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25; and a Canadian-American, Jacob Flickinger, 33.