A SPOTLIGHT will be shone on British state complicity in the Gaza genocide tomorrow as Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project launches an independent probe into the government’s role in the crisis.

It comes after ministers blocked a widely supported Bill presented by the former Labour leader for an official inquiry into Britian’s involvement in Israel’s war crimes.

The tribunal, to be held at Church House in Westminster, will hear from United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese among other witnesses over the next two days.

Writing in the Star, Mr Corbyn outlined the tribunal’s plans, which, he stressed, are not a substitute for an official probe, which would have more powers.

He said: “Earlier this year, I presented a private member’s Bill to Parliament, calling for an independent, public inquiry into Britain’s involvement in Gaza.

“I wanted to know: Why does our government continue to provide military support for Israel? What weapons have been supplied? Which of those weapons have been used in Gaza? Why does our government permit the supply of components for F-35 jets?"

Yet the government blocked the Bill. Mr Corbyn writes: “If the government had nothing to hide, it would stop blocking our efforts to expose the truth.”

The tribunal will issue a public report, focused on whether Britain has upheld its legal obligations to prevent genocide, which all scholars now concur is under way in Gaza.

Shahd Hammouri, University of Kent law lecturer and one of the tribunal’s chairs, said: “The British government has maintained a policy of denying and distorting the reality of the genocide in Gaza.

“This tribunal seeks to hold a mirror to the British government, forcing it to see the blood on its hands and to hasten the inevitable reckoning with its own complicity.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey challenged Sir Keir Starmer over Gaza in the Commons, urging the Prime Minister to press Donald Trump when he comes for his state visit later this month to act, “the one man in the world” who could stop the “horrifying images” the world is seeing.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy asked Sir Keir to protect British citizens on the Global Sumud Flotilla “which set sail for Gaza to break the illegal blockade and deliver much-needed aid.”

Dewsbury MP Iqbal Mohamed, of the Independent Alliance, told the Star: “Despite international law the British government has not taken any meaningful steps to prevent the genocide in Gaza.

“On the contrary, it is still providing Israel with arms, and economic diplomatic and military support.

“This inquiry should have been co-ordinated by the government. In the absence of government fulfilling its obligations it is really important that Jeremy has stepped up to uncover Britain’s direct and indirect complicity in the genocide.”