MORE than 50 MPs have urged the government to formally recognise the state of Palestine during a UN conference next week.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is among those who have backed a motion in the House of Commons tabled by Labour MP Andy McDonald.

The motion reaffirms a 2014 Commons vote that the government should recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution.

Mr McDonald said that while the Conservative government failed to do so, ”this Labour government must not repeat that mistake.

”Keir Starmer has rightly said that Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people.

”And as the Israelis’ actions have demonstrated in recent months, a peaceful two-state solution is being undermined by the genocide in Gaza and the continued division of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

”I believe the UK must go further than it has to date to stand up for Palestinian human rights and the defence of international humanitarian law. I believe we must sanction the state as a whole, not just ministers, through ending all arms supply and suspending trade.

”And a further concrete step we can take to show our solidarity with the Palestinians, is to recognise a state of Palestine.

”The government should not wait any longer and should do that next week in New York.”

The four-day conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two State Solution will be held in New York from Tuesday.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy is expected to attend.