ACT now to stop the Gaza genocide, the government was told by a near-unanimous Commons today as anger at Israel’s crimes started to finally boil over.

As thousands of pro-Palestinian campaigners surrounded the Commons in red, MPs inside from all parties demanded that ministers move from criticism of Israel to taking actual steps, including immediate recognition of a Palestinian state and a halt to all arms sales.

They also endorsed, without a vote, a Bill presented by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calling for an “independent public inquiry” into the UK’s “military, economic, or political co-operation with Israel since October 2023.”

The Bill stands little chance of ever becoming law without government support, however. That will not be forthcoming.

Faced with overwhelming popular and political pressure, ministers are now threatening Israel with further action while declining to say what that might be or when.

Hapless Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer turned in another of his increasingly farcical Commons statements, offering platitudes and promises that something unidentified will be done at an unknown time.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told MPs earlier that “Israel’s recent action is appalling and, in my view, counterproductive and intolerable” but suggested no immediate shift in policy.

The Commons is now united against this approach. Even shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, normally a pro-Israel hardliner, took a new tone, saying that the level of suffering in Gaza was “unacceptable” and condemning Israel’s approval of many new West Bank settlements.

Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker, who had forced the Commons statement, told Falconer that Israel was pursuing “a deliberate policy of annexation and genocide” and demanded recognition of a Palestinian state, sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers and a suspension of arms sales and wider trade with Israel.

Tory MP Kit Malthouse said the Commons was being “played” by the government, which offered “nothing but words” while Israel replaced United Nations aid agencies in Gaza “with a shooting gallery, an abattoir.”

And Tory grandee Roger Gale demanded in vain to know when the government would act.

Labour benches are now united against government inertia. Loyalist MP Stella Creasey told Falconer that “the time has run out for ambiguity” when the roads to aid centres are classed by Israel as “combat zones.”

Andy McDonald demanded ministers “pull all levers to stop Israeli military actions immediately” while Richard Burgon said Israeli premier Netanyahu saw the British government as a “weak, weak, weak pushover and a joke.”

Suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana warned the anguished Falconer that he was “personally complicit in genocide.”

Presenting his Bill to MPs, Mr Corbyn recalled the disaster of the Iraq War which led to the Chilcot inquiry, and that he had apologised as party leader for Labour’s role in the war, but added that history was now repeating itself.

“We are now witnessing not a war but a genocide live-streamed across the world,” he said.

He also demanded that ministers come clean about the role of the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus in shipping arms to Israel, saying MPs’ questions had met with “evasions, obstruction and silence leaving the public in the dark.”

At least nine Labour MPs were among those sponsoring his Bill, as well as MP from the SNP, the Greens and Plaid Cymru.

As Palestinian solidarity campaigners formed a symbolic “red line” encircling Parliament, new polling showed that the great majority of the public back tougher action against Israel.

A survey by Opinium for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign showed support for a full arms embargo on Israel by over four to one, including nearly three-quarters of those who voted Labour last year.

There were clear majorities in favour of sanctions against Israeli government ministers and for Israel to be expelled from the United Nations, with only 16 per cent opposed.

Local government pension scheme divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s violations of international law is backed by over three to one.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said the polling “speaks to Israel’s growing isolation and the significant public support for sanctions.

“By continuing to arm and support Israel even as it enacts a genocide and a policy of forced starvation, the British government is holding on to an increasingly fringe position, completely out of sync with public opinion, and with the views of those who supported it at the last election.”