BRITAIN has betrayed the Palestinian people, senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry conceded yesterday.

The chair of the important Commons foreign affairs committee accused the Labour government of wringing its hands rather than sanctioning Israel.

Her powerful remarks are a departure for Ms Thornberry, who was a stalwart defender of Sir Keir’s support for Israel’s genocidal actions when she was shadow attorney general before the 2024 election.

The government ought to have acted to make it “economically impossible” for Israel to pursue its aggression in Gaza and the West Bank, she said.

Ms Thornberry welcomed the recognition of a Palestinian state by the government but said that there had been no follow-up.

She said: “We have to remember that recognition was only the first step. Where is the second step, where is the tenth step, what are we doing?

“Anyone who believes that what Gazans have right now is a genuine ceasefire has to look at what the truth is.

“More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed, but we also know that the death toll continues to rise during this so-called ceasefire. Over 700 have been killed in Gaza since Donald Trump proclaimed [a ceasefire].”

Speaking at a Westminster event on Monday, Ms Thornberry said that “when it comes to our record on Palestine, I am afraid we have fallen well short and in doing so we have failed the Palestinian people.”

Referring to the International Court of Justice ruling on the illegality of the occupation of Palestinian territory, Ms Thornberry said: “There are certain actions that should follow logically.

“We should be banning the import of goods produced in illegal settlements.  We should be placing sanctions on those involved in the settlements. 

“We should be making sure we are stopping the involvement of any British companies. We should be coming down hard on insurance networks.

“We should be making it clear that it is not possible to construct settlements on the West Bank and we are going to do everything to stop it.

“Let’s act together so we make sure that it is so economically painful for Israel that settlement expansion becomes untenable, because what is happening in the West Bank is untenable — families driven from their homes, communities under constant threat, Palestinians being lynched in the streets. 

“That is what we should be confronting. Words of condemnation are just not going to cut it.”

Her intervention will likely raise the profile of the Palestine issue in Labour’s slow-motion leadership contest over the summer.