MP Shockat Adam says Starmer dodging issue of Gaza atrocities after Commons exchange

Independent MP Shockat Adam has criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for claiming "most of what he says is not right" after Adam asked whether the UK will "acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is underway" and end its military cooperation with Israel.

Adam, the MP for Leicester South and a member of the parliamentary Independent Alliance group, put the questions to Starmer on Wednesday during Prime Minister's Questions in parliament.

But the prime minister dodged the questions and said that Adam's remarks were mostly "not right".

On Thursday morning Middle East Eye asked 10 Downing Street to specify which of Adam's statements were incorrect but the prime minister's office refused to respond.

"The prime minister accuses me of being 'not right' - yet fails to challenge a single fact I raised," Adam told MEE on Thursday.

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

His question on Wednesday came as rights groups accused Foreign Secretary David Lammy of misleading parliament over the UK's arms sales to Israel.

In parliament on Wednesday, Adam said: "This week, the Israeli government approved a plan to officially conquer Gaza, and just yesterday, Minister Smotrich vowed that Gaza will be entirely destroyed and that the Palestinians will have to leave in great numbers to third countries."

It has been widely reported, including by Britain's public broadcaster, that Israel's security cabinet approved a plan this week to "capture" Gaza and hold its territory.

It has likewise been widely reported that Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, said "Gaza will be entirely destroyed" on Tuesday. 

Speaking in front of the House of Commons today, independent British MP Shockat Adam, called for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “finally acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is underway” in Gaza and to “end all military co-operation with Israel.” pic.twitter.com/flZLkwkshv

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 7, 2025

Adam further referenced the "extermination of over 50,000 Palestinian men, women, and children, and at the same time the simultaneous expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, something I witnessed with my own eyes last week."

Late last month Adam and Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George toured Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Some of Adam's statements regarding Israeli actions have been previously made by the British government.

The UK decried the "expansion of settlements, in clear violation of international law" at the United Nations Security Council in September.

And Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, said just this week that "more than 52,000 people have now been killed in Gaza".

Dodging the questions

Adam continued in the Commons: "So will now the prime minister finally acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is underway and to end all UK military cooperation with Israel, especially the illegal provision of F-35 fighter jet parts, or will he risk make Britain complicit in war crimes and be the prime minister to see Britain answer at the Hague for its role in this atrocity?"

On Wednesday a new report based on Israeli import data revealed that a wide range of UK-made military goods and arms, including F-35 fighter jet parts, are still being sent to Israel even after the British government suspended 30 arms export licences in September.

Starmer did not answer Adam's questions, but replied: "Well, Mr Speaker, most of what he [Adam] says is simply not right."

The prime minister continued: "I do want to address the position in Gaza and the West Bank because it is increasingly intolerable, and I am deeply concerned, particularly with the lack of aid that is getting in and the impact it's having on tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of individuals."

He added: "That concern is something I recently reaffirmed to the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, where I asserted again that a two-state solution is the only viable approach for peace, and our focus is on delivering peace for Palestinians and Israelis, returning to the ceasefire, getting the hostages out, and humanitarian aid in that is desperately needed in greater numbers and more quickly."

Speaking to MEE on Thursday, Adam criticised Starmer's refusal to answer his questions, saying: "Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.

"Senior Israeli ministers speak openly of destroying Gaza and displacing its population. The settlements in the West Bank are expanding at an expediating rate.

"These are not disputed claims; they are atrocities in plain sight."

"By continuing to supply parts for F-35 fighter jets - weapons that have played a central role in Israel’s devastating assault - Britain is not just morally compromised, it is at risk of breaching both international and UK law.

'If parliament has been misled by the foreign secretary or any minister it is a resigning matter'

 - John McDonnell MP

"The question is simple: will this government stop aiding war crimes, or will it be remembered for helping to enable them?"

The report released by three campaign groups on Wednesday says parts for the F-35 jet, which has been critical for Israel's war on Gaza, appear to have arrived in Israel as recently as March - five months after the UK said it had suspended its direct exports over concerns they might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Data from the Israeli Tax Authority cited by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Workers for a Free Palestine and Progressive International shows that 8,630 separate munitions have been sent from the UK to Israel since the suspensions.

The munitions fall under a category of import labelled "bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and parts thereof". 

Soon after the suspensions, Foreign Secretary David Lammy had told parliament that "much of what we send is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms".

The report's authors write: "On the basis of the evidence in this report, it appears that David Lammy has misled parliament and the public about arms shipments to Israel."

In response to the study, nearly two dozen MPs have written to Lammy, urging him to come before parliament to respond to the allegations.

Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell and MP Zarah Sultana, who signed the letter, are also calling on the prime minister to launch an investigation into whether ministers misled parliament and the public and make it clear that if the ministerial code has been breached, they must resign.

"If parliament has been misled by the foreign secretary or any minister it is a resigning matter and more importantly it attracts potentially a charge of complicity in war crimes," McDonnell said.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Guardian: "This government has suspended relevant licences for the [Israeli Defence Forces] that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

"Of the remaining licences for Israel, the vast majority are not for the Israeli Defence Forces but are for civilian purposes or re-export, and therefore are not used in the war in Gaza.

"The only exemption is the F-35 programme due to its strategic role in Nato and wider implications for international peace and security. Any suggestion that the UK is licensing other weapons for use by Israel in the war in Gaza is misleading."

middleeasteye.net