MPS CALLED for an inquiry into the Palestine Action hunger strikers today as the last one ended his strike after being given hours to live.

Umer Khalid, 22, told of ending his food and water fast after being rushed to hospital and given a “choice between treatment and likely death within the next 24 hours.”

He said that he believed “there is so much we can do to effect change … this clearly was not my time.”

If PM Sir Keir Starmer and Justice Secretary David Lammy want “to see me dead … they can come and do it themselves. 

“Until then we keep fighting, we keep resisting,” he added in a statement released by Prisoners for Palestine yesterday.

His 17-day hunger strike and three-day thirst strike ended on Sunday after hospital doctors warned he was at risk of kidney failure, acute liver failure and potential cardiac arrest.

His family were not alerted that he was admitted to the intensive care unit or given access to his medical reports, said the campaign group.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell is among the MPs who have spoken up in Parliament for the prisoners.

Today he told a Prisoners for Palestine press conference: “I would like the Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy now to have a full inquiry into how these prisoners have been treated.

“Because I do believe most people will find it’s unacceptable that they are on remand for so long and the way they have been treated in prison itself.

“That includes, I have to say, access to health facilities when some of them have been I believe in a dangerous plight.

“What we want to see is a review by the Secretary of State for Justice on the whole issue of their detention and their treatment so that we avoid this happening in the future. 

“People shouldn’t have to put their lives at risk in this way just to secure an element of fair treatment and justice under our system.”

Veteran MP Diane Abbott said that the government’s response to criticism over its support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza “has been a police one. 

“They cannot win the argument, so they demonise and criminalise their opponents. They have treated protesters as terrorists.

“That is why we should all support those who have been on hunger or other strikes. How they have been treated is a moral outrage. They are fighting for all our rights to protest. And they are fighting to stop the genocide in Gaza. They deserve the support of every decent human being.”

On Saturday evening, at least 86 people were arrested after protesting at HMP Wormwood Scrubs.

Mr Khalid has been held there on remand without trial for allegedly spray-painting aeroplanes at RAF base Brize Norton last July. 

Returning from hospital, he said that he met with prison governor Amy Frost to discuss his prison conditions and has received his previously withheld mail and clothes.

His restrictions on visits, which have been heavily limited, were also lifted, the campaign group said.

Saeed Taji Farouky, a British-Palestinian film-maker and educator, told the press conference: “He’s agreed to the very slow, dangerous process of refeeding and he’s drinking again. 

“He was successful in his hunger strike. Most of his demands were accepted.”

The seven other hunger strike prisoners are all charged with offences relating to alleged break-ins or criminal damage carried out on behalf of Palestine Action. They will all have spent more than a year in jail before going to trial.

The final three apart from Mr Khalid ended their protest on January 14 after the government decided not to award a £2 billion contract to the British subsidiary of the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.

Their original main demands had been the right to a fair trial, the deproscription of Palestine Action, the closure of Elbit’s British sites, an end to censorship of their communications and immediate bail.

Mr Khalid, who has a genetic condition called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, began refusing food in November last year as part of the co-ordinated action.

He paused after 12 days due to ill health, but restarted on January 10 before escalating his action by also refusing water from January 23.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy causes weakness and wasting in muscles around joints in the body.

Prisoners for Palestine said they should all be granted compassionate bail as they “have not been recovering well.”

The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.