KEIR Starmer and his government are being “cowardly” in the face of Donald Trump’s calls for breaches of international law in Gaza, Stephen Flynn has said.
The SNP’s Westminster leader spoke out after the US president called for the population of Gaza to be forcibly removed.
Talking to the BBC, Flynn said: “I'm outraged. What we have is a president, a populist president who's parading as some sort of peacemaker in Palestine – but when you unpick his language and you get your way through the myriad of words that he's saying, essentially, he's talking about breaching the Geneva Convention. He's using words that are tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
“He's talking like some sort of colonial dictator from the past who can decide what they want to do and when they want to do it anywhere in the world.
“I think for those of us in politics who believe in something, for those of us who have a moral compass, we need to be willing to be blunt and upfront with our friends and allies when it comes to this and say, that's not good enough, no more, that's not happening.”
Flynn accused the Labour Government of having different standards for different countries, saying they are trying to “pick and choose when international law applies”.
“If this was Vladimir Putin, if this was Xi Jinping, the UK Government would be outraged,” the SNP MP said.
“There would be statements from the Prime Minister and from the Foreign Secretary utterly condemning the proposals. But instead, all we have is silence.
“That's not good enough. That is not the actions of a responsible ally. We should have the confidence to be blunt enough with the President of the United States as he is with us.
“And I think if anything, he might even respect that.”
Flynn said he wanted to hear an “unequivocal condemnation” of Trump's proposals from Starmer and the UK Government.
“When we hear this language from the president, when we see him openly attacking our allies in Denmark, our allies in Canada, we need to be clear about where we stand,” the SNP MP said.
“Now, I've not seen anything from the Labour Party, from the Prime Minister, which indicates where he stands on any of this. You can't just sit silent and be the silent partner in a ‘special relationship’.
“You have to be clear about what your commitments are to people globally. And for my part, I think we have a moral responsibility to ensure that people aren't forcibly moved from their land in order to create a riviera.
“It's utterly absurd. It needs to be condemned.
“I think the Prime Minister needs to get off the fence and stop being so cowardly on this issue.”
Flynn added that the possibility of Trump leveraging tariffs against the UK was “terrifying” the Labour Government.
However, he went on: “We have access to Donald Trump. He obviously has a close symbolic relationship with the UK due to where his mother was born [in the Western Isles] and if anything, we should use that.
“We should use that to say ‘Donald, wind your neck in man, this is not happening. This is against international law, it’s tantamount to ethnic cleansing, you're not a colonial dictator. You're the president of the United States, not the president of the world. This has to stop’.”
Speaking at PMQs on Wednesday, Starmer dodged the question when asked if he would “firmly” tell the White House that the UK stands against Trump’s call to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
However, Starmer did say that the people of Gaza “must” be allowed to return to their homes and reiterated the UK’s support for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy also failed to condemn Trump’s comments, instead saying the US president was “right” to say Gaza is in ruins.
