British Health Secretary Wes Streeting privately said in July 2025 that Israel was “committing war crimes before our eyes” and endorsed sanctions on the state.
The revelation comes after Streeting released text message correspondence between himself and disgraced former British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.
The messages, released on Monday, were an apparent effort to dispel rumours about his friendship with the ex-peer, who resigned from the Labour Party last week over revelations about his long-standing friendship with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Streeting’s private comments on Israel to Mandelson will come as an embarrassment to Keir Starmer’s government, which has repeatedly refused to accuse Israel of committing war crimes.
In the text messages, Streeting – widely considered a leading contender to replace Starmer as prime minister if he resigns – asked Mandelson for his views on whether Britain should recognise a Palestinian state, which it went on to do months later in September 2025.
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Streeting said recognition was “morally and politically” right.
“Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing, and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.”
Streeting added that he had “never been a shrinking violent (violet) on Israel. He said he had supported the pro-Israel lobbying group, Labour Friends of Israel, “for over 20 years”.
Mandelson responded that “I am worried that such a gesture now could blow a [two-state solution] out of the water”.
Streeting said that “Israel is doing it anyway”, and added: “This is rogue state behaviour. Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers.”
‘Toast at the next election’
The Labour government sanctioned far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in June 2025 but resisted calls to sanction Israel itself.
Although diplomatic relations have been strained between Britain and Israel under Labour, with the UK introducing a partial arms embargo on the country, Starmer’s government continued to collaborate militarily with it throughout its genocide in Gaza.
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In March 2025, just months before Streeting’s private messages, Starmer rowed back on remarks made by then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy that Israel was committing a “breach of international law”.
Streeting has not publicly urged sanctions on Israel or accused it of committing war crimes, although last September he said that Israeli President Isaac Herzog “needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel”.
The released text messages also reveal that Streeting feared becoming “toast at the next election” in his Ilford North seat after winning narrowly in 2024 against British Palestinian independent candidate Leanne Mohammed.
“There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?” he told Mandelson.
Streeting’s move to release the messages is widely considered an attempt to shore up support for him as the next prime minister and pile further pressure on Starmer, who is facing calls within his own party to resign over his appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US.