British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband received loud applause Monday at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool after delivering a fiery speech attacking the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and defending London’s decision to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Miliband also directly acknowledged the domestic pressure Labour has faced over Gaza, telling those who had protested the government’s previous approach: “We hear you. You were right.”
The speech came as British authorities continued investigating five suspects arrested near RAF Fairford in England, a base used by the U.S. Air Force and from which American bombers departed for strikes on Iran during the war. Iran has denied involvement, while British media reported that investigators were examining possible links to Tehran. The suspects were later released.
For Miliband, the affair also came shortly after he met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, where the two were photographed shaking hands. Critics in Britain accused him of lending legitimacy to Tehran despite allegations that Iran continues to promote terrorist activity on British soil.
Gallery
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool
(Photo: Oli SCARFF / AFP)
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool
(Photo: Oli SCARFF / AFP)
A major section of Miliband’s conference speech focused on Israel. He has been a leading advocate of the government’s decision to prohibit trade in goods from Israeli settlements, a policy adopted partly in response to plans for new construction in the E1 corridor between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem.
Miliband said the Labour government under Prime Minister Andy Burnham had “reset” its approach toward Israel and the Palestinians.
He said Britain would call out “ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank,” “the evidence of war crimes in Gaza” and “Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.”
Britain, he added, would back those words with action by banning imports from settlements and disrupting British financing, construction and services linked to them.
Addressing what he described as efforts to undermine the two-state solution, Miliband declared to applause: “We will not let you succeed.”
Earlier in the speech, Miliband stressed that Britain remained committed to Israel’s security, condemned Hamas’ October 7 massacre and pledged to confront antisemitism.
He said the only path to peace remained two states, a secure Israel and a secure Palestine, with freedom, dignity and self-determination for both peoples.
But, he argued, Hamas’ October 7 attack could not justify the suffering inflicted by the Netanyahu government in Gaza and the West Bank, which he called “a stain on the conscience of the world.”
Miliband then addressed the millions of people in Britain and elsewhere who, he said, had been moved and outraged by the plight of Palestinians.
“We hear you. You were right,” he said.
The tougher measures toward Israel come amid significant internal pressure on Britain’s governing Labour Party over Gaza and the West Bank. Large anti-Israel demonstrations have been held throughout the war, while Labour is also facing growing competition on its left from the Green Party, which has made opposition to Israeli policy a major part of its platform.
A supporter of the British terrorist group Palestine Action was arrested yesterday outside the Labour Party conference in Liverpool
(Photo: REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja)
(Photo: REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja)
Protesters have also gathered outside Labour’s conference in Liverpool demanding that the government reverse its designation of Palestine Action as a proscribed organization. The group was banned after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged military aircraft last year.
Dozens of Palestine Action supporters were arrested outside the conference on Sunday. Miliband himself was confronted later while sitting with others at a Pizza Express restaurant near the venue.
Video of the encounter showed an activist approaching the foreign secretary and telling him: “We would like you to de-proscribe Palestine Action” and “We would like you to declare genocide in Gaza.”
The activist urged Miliband to come outside and speak with protesters being arrested nearby. Miliband did not engage in a substantive discussion and eventually replied: “Nice to meet you anyway.”
The authority to review Palestine Action’s designation lies with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has maintained a comparatively tough position toward the banned group while also pursuing stricter immigration and asylum policies than Labour’s left wing has demanded.
But on Monday, Mahmood announced a major change in Britain’s refugee policy, reopening the UK Resettlement Scheme and creating additional “safe and legal” routes into the country.
The government said the program would initially admit hundreds of refugees, with the number potentially increasing into the low thousands if illegal migration declines.
Mahmood said she was “proud” that “around a quarter will be Afghan women and girls, fleeing persecution under the Taliban, and Palestinians who have fled the horrors of Gaza.”
The Home Office separately confirmed that around one in four referrals under the reopened program are expected to be Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool
(Photo: Darren Staples / AFP)
Mahmood said the plan was guided by a principle of fairness and argued that Britain could maintain firm immigration controls while continuing to provide protection for people fleeing war and persecution.
She said the British public had not abandoned its belief in compassion or the country’s international obligations, but stressed that refugee admissions must be “capped and controlled” and that communities must be ready to receive those arriving.
The government says the legal routes are also intended to provide an alternative to dangerous crossings of the English Channel in small boats.
The announcement drew an immediate backlash from Britain’s right. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accused Labour of using “international obligations” as a pretext to bring additional migrants into the country.
“I want to be extremely clear. Britain is not obligated to take in more migrants, and under a Reform government these people will not be able to stay,” Farage said.
He also challenged Labour to call an early general election if it believed the public supported its immigration policies, arguing that Burnham had no direct electoral mandate as prime minister.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also attacked the announcement, saying: “Shabana has caved in to pressure, watering down her already weak immigration plans.”
Badenoch argued that Britain’s human rights framework could allow some refugees admitted under the program to bring family members into the country, and pointed to a recent case involving an extended Palestinian family. She said Labour’s restrictions amounted to “smoke and mirrors” unless the government supported Conservative plans to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
Reform had led many opinion polls until recently, but Labour has recovered some support since Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister in July. The Conservatives, meanwhile, have also shown signs of recovery under Badenoch as immigration becomes an increasingly central issue in British politics.