Keir Starmer's recognition of Palestinian state branded a 'cheap political stunt' in scathing rant: 'Appalling!'

In a statement delivered on Sunday, Sir Keir said: "I set out in July the terms upon which we would act in line with our manifesto to recognise Palestinian statehood. That moment has now arrived.

"To revive the hope of peace and a two state solution, I state clearly as Prime Minister of this great country that the United Kingdom formally recognises the state of Palestine."

Hitting out at the decision on GB News, Mr Pottinger fumed: "It's an absolutely appalling thing to have done. First of all, what is Palestine? Who is the Government there that we recognise?

"Only a few months ago, less than that, they were proscribing Palestine Action, using it because they said it was a cover for Hamas. They've just recognised a Government or a country that is run by Hamas, it's absolutely ludicrous."

Taking further aim at the Prime Minister, he added: "On top of that, Yvette Cooper is going to the General Assembly of the UN, not the Prime Minister. Why is the Prime Minister not going to the UN General Assembly, the most important gathering of world leaders?

"The reason is that he's weak, he realises he's not only a domestic laughing stock, but an international laughing stock, and he's actually by doing this doing damage to the country."

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Highlighting the impact on the intelligence alliance with Israel, Mr Pottinger explained: "By upsetting Israel in the way they've done, Israel will stop sharing intelligence with us. Inevitably they will, if they haven't already.

"And that is very dangerous for us. We have a constant terrorist threat in this country, and a lot of those threats have been actually avoided and squashed thanks to intelligence from our ally Israel. Now, without that, he is putting British lives at risk."

Criticising the state of the Labour Party, Mr Pottinger also claimed that the decision by Sir Keir was only to "appease the Left" of his party.

The political commentator stated: "This is a Prime Minister who is in name only. He's a weak leader, and this was a cheap political stunt to appease the splintering Left of his party.

"His party is breaking apart, and even the bit that's broken apart is breaking apart. The Labour Party is disintegrating in front of our very eyes, and all Starmer can do is actually make things worse for this country."

Completely disagreeing with Mr Pottinger's argument, former political adviser Matthew Torbitt hit back: "That was so melodramatic at the very least. Hamas don't run Palestine, they run Gaza. I think the Palestinian Authority might have something to say about that.

"The intelligence point is a fair one, and I agree on that, and we've read various reports that that has stopped attacks in this country. But the thing about allies is you tell them when they're wrong, and whether this is the right thing to do because of that is another conversation.

"The other issue we've got is the fact that we have Israeli cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister saying, 'oh, well, we're not having the two state', well I'm sorry, that's not right."