{"id":422210,"date":"2026-02-12T18:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422210\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:32:08","slug":"corbyn-alleges-uk-complicity-after-streetings-admission-of-gaza-abuses-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422210\/","title":{"rendered":"Corbyn alleges UK \u2018complicity\u2019 after Streeting\u2019s admission of Gaza abuses | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

British legislator Jeremy Corbyn<\/a> has called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to cooperate in exposing the United Kingdom\u2019s \u201ccomplicity in genocide\u201d in Gaza, after the release of Streeting\u2019s private messages in which he acknowledged Israel committed war crimes in the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

Corbyn, a former Labour leader, sent a letter to Streeting on Thursday rebuking him for the UK government\u2019s continued support for Israel despite the abuses that the health secretary himself had recognised in a private correspondence.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cThe publication of these messages reveals a shameful failure to publicly say something you knew privately to be true: that this government was complicit in war crimes,\u201d Corbyn\u2019s letter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now a matter of public record that you decided to serve in the cabinet of a government that was providing military, economic and diplomatic support to a state that was breaching international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streeting, who has been a vocal critic of Corbyn and a staunch supporter of Israel, had voluntarily released text messages between himself and the UK\u2019s former ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, an associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the trove of messages published by Sky News on Monday \u2013 meant to show transparency over Streeting\u2019s own ties to Mandelson \u2013 the health secretary argued last year in favour of recognising Palestine as a state.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorally and politically, I think we need to join France,\u201d Streeting wrote in July 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorally, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

UK government\u2019s position<\/p>\n

That acknowledgement of Israeli war crimes<\/a> contradicted the public statements of the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which Streeting serves.<\/p>\n

Corbyn\u2019s letter, signed by his fellow members of Parliament in the Independent Alliance, noted that London\u2019s stance had been that Israel\u2019s actions during its genocidal war on Gaza were \u201cat clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter said the \u201cdiscrepancy\u201d between Streeting\u2019s private admission and the government\u2019s position aimed to thwart the policy consequences of recognising Israel\u2019s well-documented war crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a government acknowledges that Israel is committing war crimes, then any continued military or political support is an admission from the government that is knowingly aiding and abetting these war crimes,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

The Labour government recognised Palestine<\/a> last year and imposed sanctions<\/a> on far-right Israeli government ministers, but critics say the UK has not done enough to hold Israel accountable for its violations.<\/p>\n

Throughout the war on Gaza, the UK operated military surveillance flights over Gaza that London has said aimed to locate Israeli captives in the territory.<\/p>\n

While the British Ministry of Defence has stressed that the spy aircraft \u201cdid not have a combat role\u201d, rights advocates have argued that the policy amounts to direct involvement in the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International UK said on Tuesday that Streeting \u201cwas right\u201d in acknowledging Israel\u2019s war crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is damning is that the Prime Minister and his government have continued business as usual despite overwhelming evidence from the UN and human rights organisations of war crimes and genocide,\u201d Kristyan Benedict, the group\u2019s crisis response manager, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

For his part, Corbyn asked Streeting why he did not resign from the government and whether he would be willing to cooperate with the International Criminal Court<\/a> in any investigation over London\u2019s complicity in alleged war crimes in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, school children are taught about history\u2019s worst crimes against humanity,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are asked to reflect on how these crimes could have possibly occurred. And they learn the names of political figures who failed to prevent them. In the near future, our history books will shame government ministers who could have stopped the genocide in Gaza, but chose to stay silent instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer vows to stay<\/p>\n

Corbyn led Labour between 2015 and 2020. During his tenure, the party faced persistent accusations of tolerating anti-Semitism. His supporters say the allegations were a manufactured crisis<\/a> to undermine him because of his support for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

Streeting \u2013 long seen as a rising star on the right of the party \u2013 became one of the most prominent detractors of Corbyn at the time.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Starmer succeeded Corbyn as leader and suspended him from the party months later over accusations of anti-Semitism as he purged Labour of many officials critical of Israel.<\/p>\n

Corbyn retained his Parliament seat as an independent candidate in the 2024 vote<\/a> that swept Labour into power.<\/p>\n

Last year, he cofounded the socialist Your Party. He also helped establish the Independent Alliance parliamentary bloc of pro-Palestine legislators who oppose domestic austerity.<\/p>\n

Despite the landslide victory in 2024, Labour \u2013 which has been losing left-wing support to independents, Your Party and the Green Party \u2013 has seen its popularity plunge amid a cost-of-living crisis and rising anti-immigrant rhetoric<\/a> on the right.<\/p>\n

The Labour government has also been rocked by the latest release of the Epstein files<\/a> in the US last month, which further showed close ties between the sex offender and Mandelson \u2013 whom Starmer had appointed as ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\n

Starmer has rejected calls to step down over the scandal, pledging that he \u201cwill never walk away\u201d from his mandate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British legislator Jeremy Corbyn has called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to cooperate in exposing the United Kingdom\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,59,57,58,9084,590,632,50,9086,229,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-422210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}