Complicit in war crimes

Liberal commentators have been quick to conclude that Britain is experiencing some kind of ‘Damascene conversion’. Starmer’s Labour, they believe, has finally realised that the UK might be complicit in Israeli war crimes!

Seemingly, unlike the previous Tory administration, who made it their business to show total disregard for international law (over the Rwanda deportation scheme, for example), ‘Sir’ Keir’s Labour is willing to take a brave stand against Netanyahu’s slaughter.

Not quite so. As Labour Party hacks have hastily made clear, this move does not amount to anything that could be considered an ‘arms embargo’.

To eliminate any doubt, Lammy went further: the decision by the British government was “a forward-looking evaluation, not a determination of innocence or guilt”.

Like the true snakeoil statesman that he is, Lammy is trying to have it both ways: admitting the likelihood of serious offences by Israel, but administering nothing more than a slap on the wrist.