— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK)
April 4, 2024
Khan’s comments make him the first senior figure in the Labour Party who has called for the UK to stop its arms exports to Israel.
In the interview, Khan took aim at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: “Rishi Sunak claims to be chums, best friends, [have a] special relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu . Where is the evidence we're using that influence to put pressure on the Israeli government?”
“I worry every hour this war goes on, forget every day, more innocent people are dying.”
The mayor pointed to the killing of seven aid workers in the World Central Kitchen convoy on Monday, “Foreign aid workers are now being killed by the IDF, it’s got to stop.”
Khan also referred to the legal advice that the government is said to have received on whether UK arms to Israel are being used to violate international humanitarian law.
Khan said: “The government has had weeks to publish the legal advice, they’ve not published it. If they publish the legal advice today and it shows there’s a breach of international law, we should halt all sales.”
Asked if he would be putting “pressure” on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to support an arms embargo on Israel, Khan said: “It’s not about me putting pressure on Keir Starmer or anybody else. The Labour Party is not the government, the Conservatives are the government.”
“We have one rule for the Labour party in opposition and one rule for the Conservative government.
“The last time there was a Labour government, I was in it, and Gordon Brown, a few days after Israel went into Gaza, called for a ceasefire. The last Labour prime minister went to the United Nations and got a motion passed for a ceasefire," the mayor went on.
“The government now is a Conservative government and it’s Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives who should be held to account, not the Labour Party in opposition.”
The news comes as civil servants threaten to stop working over arms sales to Israel. The Civil Service union the PCS, sent a letter to the department of trade which claims they would call on workers to strike "the legal jeopardy faced by civil servants” involved in selling arms to Israel.
