The Mirror’s Kevin Maguire is urging PM Keir Starmer to persuade Donald Trump to ‘turn the screw on Benjamin Netanyahu’ ahead of their meeting in Scotland today
The US both arms and sustains Israel, so if Keir Starmer’s bromance with Donald Trump is to be worthwhile, then the PM must persuade him to turn the screw on Benjamin Netanyahu.
Britain itself cannot end the horrific starvation and daily slaughter of Gazans, despite MPs on the left as well as the right over-estimating the global clout of a country that is, in fact, a middling power.
Starmer got and gets much wrong on this war, from initially refusing to condemn the unlawful blockade of water, power and humanitarian aid to continuing arms sales to Israel.
And despite pressure from deputy PM Angela Rayner and much of the Cabinet, he has refused to recognise a Palestinian state.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer resists pressure to recognise Palestine now as 220 MPs back call
Yet Starmer did end some military supplies, sanctioned the vilest two extremists in Netanyahu’s government and resisted Tory calls to oppose international war crimes arrest warrants, including one on PM “Bibi” Netanyahu.
Starmer’s growing revulsion over the killings of Palestinians is genuine. But cajoling Trump during his Scottish golf trip to put the squeeze on Netanyahu would be a prize worth securing.
He could persuade Trump to help transform an Israeli “tactical pause” in parts of Gaza into the end of the 22-month war against Hamas, and a cessation of bombing that is most likely to free Israeli hostages.
Starmer is able to point to a trade deal lessening the impact of the US President’s hostile tariffs as a benefit of sucking up to him.
Increased UK military spending is a downside and, oh, how Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky must wish Joe Biden or Kamala Harris were in the White House instead.
Urging Trump to lean on Netanyahu wouldn’t be easy and a US President who fancied an ethnically cleansed “Trump Gaza” – two million Palestinians driven from their homes – may retain his own grotesque plans.
But for Britain and the PM this is about being on the side of humanity, and that means ending the hunger, ending the killings. Immediately.
Next election ‘lottery’
Having six significant national parties, and seven in Wales and Scotland, is going to turn the next general election into a total lottery.
And magic grandpa Jeremy Corbyn’s new party threatening to do to Labour what Reform UK did to the Conservatives at the last.
Splitting the left-wing vote, as Reform did on the right, could hand victory to Nigel Farage just as Keir Starmer was gifted the keys to No 10 on a historically low 34% share of the vote.
Labour, Greens, Lib Dems, Tories, Reform and Corbyn’s vehicle, provisionally trading as “Your Party”, fighting it out with Plaid Cymru and the SNP thrown into the mix north and west of the border will test the credibility like never before of a two-party electoral system.
Starmer needs to start worrying about his left flank instead of suspending MPs for caring about the disabled and environment.
Corbyn is unlikely ever to be Prime Minister but win, say, 5% of Labour’s 34% and he would blow up British politics.
Revenge would be booting Starmer out of Downing Street and possibly putting Farage in.
British politics has never been so volatile. Or unpredictable.
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