Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy MP
At the start of his keynote speech at conference this morning, shadow foreign secretary and longstanding LFI parliamentary supporter David Lammy expressed his support for Israel in the face of Hamas’s recent attacks and declared that “Labour stands firmly in support of Israel’s right to defend itself, rescue hostages and protect its citizens”.
He added that the Hamas attacks “set back the cause of peace” and stressed that there is “never any justification for terrorism”.
He went onto say that the “indiscriminate” attacks had “set back the cause of peace” in the region.
Going on to say “there will not be a just and lasting peace until Israel is secure, Palestine is a sovereign state, and both Israelis and Palestinians enjoy security, dignity and human rights”, Lammy concluded that “though it may never have felt more distant, we will not surrender the hope of two states living side by side in peace.”