Sunak calls the Israel attack a ‘pogrom’

Should the UK warn Israel about its response to the Hamas attack? The Prime Minister was very pointed as he told the Commons that people ‘should call [the 7 October attack] what it was: a pogrom’. His statement was grave and included full support for Israel and for Jewish people in Britain. He repeatedly told MPs that ‘we will continue to stand with Israel… not just today, not just tomorrow, but always’. He continued: ‘This atrocity was an existential strike at the very idea of Israel as a safe homeland for the Jewish people. I understand why it has shaken you to your core.’

The Prime Minister told the House of the UK’s three main responses: the sending of RAF and Royal Navy craft to stop the supply of further arms to Palestine and help with the humanitarian effort; increasing humanitarian aid by £10 million; and deploying British diplomats ‘to sustain the prospects of peace and stability in the region’.