Stephen Flynn has demanded an immediate recall of the House of Commons following the Israeli air strikes on Gaza which killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three UK citizens.
The SNP's Westminster leader said the situation "demands that the Prime Minister comes to Parliament without further delay to outline the UK Government’s response to the killing of UK citizens by Israel."
The charity has confirmed that John Chapman, 57, Jim Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, were among the staff killed when their convoy was struck after unloading food in the Palestinian enclave.
The incident has prompted condemnation, with calls for the UK government to suspend arms sales to Israel.
READ MORE: Cross-party MSPs to probe Scotland's international aid
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Mr Flynn said: “As you know, the SNP has been calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel since October last year.
"We have repeatedly urged the UK Government to do more to secure an immediate ceasefire, including by ending arms sales to Israel.
“Our call to end arms sales to Israel has been repeatedly rejected by the UK Government and the Labour Party, despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel is breaching international law through its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza and its collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
He added: “With three UK citizens among those killed in the Israeli strike on World Central Kitchen aid workers, it is essential that the UK Parliament is recalled immediately.
“This situation demands that the Prime Minister comes to Parliament without further delay to outline the UK Government’s response to the killing of UK citizens by Israel, to enable MPs to scrutinise the UK Government’s response, and so that Parliament can finally debate and vote on ending arms sales to Israel.”
The UK must end arms sales to Israel.
— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) April 3, 2024
If the UK Government are unwilling to act then Parliament should force them to do so.
But that can’t happen whilst the doors to Westminster lie shut.
Parliament should be recalled without delay.#Gaza pic.twitter.com/4j1kTjHDWU
The Commons is currently in recess, with MPs not due back until April 15.
Speaking to the Sun Newspaper’s Never Mind the Ballots show, Mr Sunak defended what he described as the UK's "very careful export licensing regime" around arms.
“There are a set of rules, regulations and procedures that we’ll always follow, and I have been consistently clear with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that while of course we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with international humanitarian law, protect civilian lives and, sadly, too many civilians have already lost their lives.
“Get more aid into Gaza. That’s what we’ve consistently called for and what we want to see actually is an immediate humanitarian pause to allow more aid in, and crucially the hostages to be released, and that’s what we’ll continue to push for.”
READ MORE: Three British aid workers killed in Gaza after Israeli air strike
Lord Peter Ricketts, a former senior diplomat who chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee during the Blair government, said Israeli forces’ killing of the aid workers has sparked “global outrage” as he called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
The crossbench peer, who served as national security adviser between 2010 and 2012, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think there is abundant evidence now that Israel hasn’t been taking enough care to fulfil its obligations on the safety of civilians, and a country that gets arms from the UK has to comply with international humanitarian law, that is a condition of the arms export licensing policy.
“I think the time has come to send that signal."
Labour’s Darren Jones suggested the UK halting arms sales would not change the course of the war.
“The fact of the matter is if the UK, for example, stopped supplying arms, the war would not end. What we need to do is get the parties to a position where the fighting can stop,” the shadow Treasury minister told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme.
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