Speaking on LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, Kearns noted this marks ‘a fundamental change in the UK position.’
The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Alicia Kearns, has welcomed the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron’s remarks that the UK could consider Palestine as a state, telling LBC’s Andrew Marr that this marks ‘a fundamental change in the UK position.’
Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton also told Andrew that the government should question the Israeli Ambassador about the attacks on the British medical charity, Medical Aid for Palestine, and shared her concerns regarding the takeover of the Daily Telegraph by RedBird IMI.
Commenting on remarks made by the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, that the UK could consider recognising Palestine as a state, Alicia told Andrew:
‘His suggestion that we might recognise Palestine, this is a fundamental change in UK position. It’s a very welcome one from my perspective. But what I need to tease out of the government over the next few days is, is this a posturing position to show Israel that unless they reform their behaviours, unless they change some of their targeting that there are tools that we have available to us? Or is it a genuine commitment towards a Palestinian state? Which is where we should be going.’
On the IDF attacking a British medical charity in Gaza, Alicia said:
‘This is truly horrifying. So, we saw on the 19th of January, a British siloed building, that is completely isolated from others. It was the home to Medical Aid for Palestine, a British charity, and the IRC – which of course David Miliband is Chief Executive of – was bombed by the Israeli defence forces, we know that, from an F16 jet. But on the 22nd of December, the UK Defence Attaché in Tel Aviv had confirmation from the IDF that they knew this was a humanitarian site.
Andrew Marr Tonight with the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton, Alicia Kearns / Image: LBC/Global
‘They’d marked it as sensitive, and it had been marked as humanitarian. So, what changed in just under a month that the IDF went from saying this is a protected site to being bombed? And we were very lucky, there were four British GPs inside it, they were harmed, but thankfully their lives weren’t taken. The government says they’ve raised this with the Israelis. I think really that the Israeli Ambassador needs to be called in to answer on this. And we need the Israelis to answer how in the world, a site like this, a humanitarian protected site, was bombed.’
Asked why she has raised concerns of the takeover of the Daily Telegraph by RedBird IMI, Alicia replied:
‘So, some people say, ‘well, isn’t this just another Murdoch scenario?’ but it’s so different. So, Murdoch was a foreign national, this is a foreign state, taking ownership of what is our critical national infrastructure.
‘You know, people listening to you, Andrew, they are listening to you to know what is going on, to make sure that you are holding people like me to account, that you know what is going on and that you are exposing other issues at home and abroad… I do not want to see other critical national infrastructure in the hands of foreign states because it makes us vulnerable. It is the same with our media. We need it for our democracy. And we always pride ourselves on the strength of British media, and so does the world really.’
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