The Foreign Office has been forced to deny a meeting between a staffer and Hamas officials broke the UK’s long-standing commitment not to negotiate with terrorists, just hours before Sir Keir Starmer is due to announce the UK will recognise a Palestinian state. Astonishing documents have emerged which appear to show the British consulate staff met with Hamas terrorists despite the UK saying it has a “no-contact policy” with the extremist group.

The armed wing of Hamas has been a proscribed terror organisation by the UK Government since 2001, the proscription was extended in November 2021 to include the entirety of the group, which ruthlessly controls almost every aspect of life for two million people in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Hamas has declared it wants to wipe out Israel and its terrorists carried out the October 7 atrocity in 2023 when it attacked the Jewish state killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. The murderous rampage sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war as Israel seeks to defend itself against a terrorist state on its borders. The conflict between Hamas and Israeli forces has been a humanitarian disaster for the people of Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry reporting 65,000 deaths. But even though incredible misery has been dealt to ordinary Palestinians, Hamas still refuses to hand over the last Israeli hostages, despite such a move potentially helping towards a peace deal.

Even though Israeli hostages remain captive, Sir Keir Starmer has come under increasing pressure from elements within the Labour Party to declare that Britain recognises a Palestinian state and the UK is expected to announce the measure at the UN this week. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is in “disagreement” with Sir Keir’s decision, and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said previously the move rewarded “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.

Now new documents seen by the Daily Express could prove embarrassing for the Prime Minister as they appear to show that despite the UK policy of not engaging with terrorist groups like Hamas, a UK staff member did meet with the terrorists in February 2022 – just three months after the British Government had extended the terror proscription to cover Hamas’s entire operation in Gaza.

The Foreign Office has not denied the event took place, but said “we categorically reject that this was a ‘meeting’”, adding the staff member was “summoned” and that not attending “would not have been an option”.

The files show a memo from the Gaza Interior Security Mechanism (ISM), an official body run under the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security, about a meeting in Gaza with a staff member connected to the British Consulate in Israel.

According to NGO Monitor, which publishes independent analysis about non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in conflict zones, the UK representative reassured Hamas officials “the resolution (November 2021) of the UK to ban Hamas and designate it as a terror group shall not impact the projects funded by the UK government”.

Translations of the Hamas memo also state the British staffer said “the resolution to ban Hamas was taken by the Ministry of Interior [i.e. the British Home Office] and not by the British Foreign Ministry [FCDO]”, seemingly implying that the designation would not change UK relations with Hamas in Gaza.

Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor at NGO Monitor, said: “The UK government has repeatedly said for years that it does not talk to terrorists but now we have the proof from these files found deep inside Gaza that UK diplomatic staff did meet with Hamas officials.

“Alarmingly, it appears that the purpose of this meeting was to reassure Hamas that, despite their designation as a terror organisation, the UK would continue to pump millions of pounds into Gaza.

“We’ve raised repeated concerns that large sums of UK government and charity money was siphoned off by Hamas terrorists rather than going to help ordinary Palestinians.

“These documents raise a lot of questions about how much engagement has the UK government had with Hamas since 2021? and whether these back channels are still going on now, with the Labour government set to reward Hamas for its atrocities on October 7 with recognition of Palestinian statehood.”

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Spokesperson said: “We categorically reject that this was a ‘meeting’ with the Hamas-run interior ministry. In February 2022, a member of staff was summoned by the Hamas-run police to explain the UK’s work in Gaza.

“Refusal to attend the summons would not have been an option. This incident in no way represents a breach of the UK’s asset freeze against the entirety of Hamas, nor our no-contact policy with the terrorist group.”