UK could be legally complicit in Gaza war crimes, senior Tory MP warns Rishi Sunak

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The British government could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza if it does not do more to “restrain” Israel, a senior Conservative MP has warned. The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, which Mr Blunt co-chairs, has issued a notice of intention to prosecute UK officials and says there is “clear evidence that Israel has committed war crimes”. Speaking on Sky News on Saturday morning, Mr Blunt said: “If you know that a party is going to commit a war crime – and this forcible transfer of people is a precise breach of one of the statutes that governs international law and all states in this area – then you are making yourself complicit.” “And as international law has developed in this area, the fact of being complicit makes you equally guilty to the party carrying out the crime.” Conservative MP Crispin Blunt has warned that the UK is in ‘legal peril’ on account of its ‘apparent unqualified support to the policy of the government of Israel’ In his letter to Mr Sunak, Mr Blunt said the UK could prevent further legal action by issuing a public statement condemning Israeli breaches of international law, and urged the PM to “ask each government official that has encouraged war crimes in Gaza to rescind their statements in public”. It is an ongoing situation, obviously everything should be done within international law, but I don’t want to step away from the core principles that Israel has the right to defend herself.” Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Israel's president Isaac Herzog said: “We are working, operating militarily in terms according to rules of international law, period.