Keir Starmer’s controversial decision to recognise a state of Palestine could lead to demands for the UK to pay more than £2 trillion in reparations to the country, legal experts have said.
Sir Keir has said the UK will press ahead with the move, which is expected to be announced ahead of his visit to the UN this week, unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
It has been condemned by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch for ‘rewarding terrorism’, while the US Government says that it will have ‘disastrous consequences’.
Now legal experts have warned that it could also be a costly decision – because the new country would ask for eye-watering damages in compensation for land ‘taken from the Palestinian people’ when Britain relinquished control of the region after the Second World War.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has a long history of threatening to sue Britain, is demanding ‘reparations in accordance with international law’ based on the value of the land which was under British rule between 1917 and 1948.
Some international law experts have described £2 trillion, roughly the size of Britain’s total economy, as a ‘good place to start’.
Families of the hostages abducted by Hamas in the October 7 attacks have written to the Prime Minister to condemn the decision, which they claim has ‘dramatically complicated’ efforts to be reunited with their relatives.
Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick says reparations for Palestine would amount to ‘Chagos 2.0’, in reference to Sir Keir’s surrender of the islands to Mauritius – which leaked government documents reveal will cost UK taxpayers more than £35 billion to rent back from them.
Britain handed over the territory in the Indian Ocean in response to pressure from international courts, which pro-Israeli lawyers warn could act as a precedent.
The campaign group called Britain Owes Palestine has demanded an apology from Britain for ‘war crimes’ in the region.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy once supported calls for reparations for slavery, saying: ‘As a Caribbean people, we are not going to forget our history. We don’t want to just hear an apology, we want reparations,’ while the Government’s lawyer-in-chief, Lord Hermer, has given legal assistance to nations seeking reparations for slavery.
Lord Hermer’s advice resulted in a ‘ten-point plan for reparations’, as former colonies seek to seize up to £18trillion in compensation from the UK.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘Not a penny of taxpayer money should be spent on so-called reparations.
‘This is a load of ahistorical nonsense. Britain was, and remains, a force for good in the world – these ridiculous demands should be brushed aside.
‘Lord Hermer spent his career working against British interests.
‘Now Starmer’s appointed him to work at the heart of government and he’s undermining Britain from within – whether the Chagos surrender or the betrayal of veterans who served in Northern Ireland.
‘He simply cannot be trusted and should be sacked.’
