More than a third of MPs have signed a letter to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state. Some 220 MPs from nine political parties have backed the call - more than half of them Labour - arguing that UK recognition would send a "powerful" message and a vital step toward a two-state solution.

French President Emmanuel Macron shared a letter addressed to the leader of the Palestinian Authority on Thursday, citing a need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

France has announced its intention to become the first member of the Group of Seven to recognize Palestine as a state. Ireland, Norway and Spain have already done so, breaking from a consensus within Western Europe and the US that the Palestinians should achieve statehood through negotiations with Israel.

Emmanuel Macron’s position on a Palestinian state “doesn’t matter,” President Donald Trump said after the French president announced he would recognise the war-torn territory as a state.

There are 147 UN member states out of 193 that recognise the state of Palestine - but the UK is not one of them