Don't dismiss ideas like Viceroy Blair, says senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry

Emily Thornberry, the chair of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee (FAC), has said the UK should not necessarily dismiss the idea of “Viceroy Tony Blair”, and suggested the country should consider imposing a full arms embargo on Israel. 

The former shadow foreign secretary made the remarks at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Monday afternoon during a fringe event organised by the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) and Action for Humanity. 

At the same event, the senior Labour MP expressed discomfort with the government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Middle East Eye asked Thornberry whether she endorses the Blair Gaza plan, which would see the former British Labour prime minister lead a transitional authority in the enclave. 

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said his new peace plan called for an international oversight body, the Board of Peace, with Blair on the board along with several others.

Speakers at the fringe event on Monday jokingly referred to Blair’s preferred plan as proposing a Blair viceroyalty akin to colonial rule. 

UK government ministers have refused to comment on whether Blair should have a role in running Gaza.

Thornberry said that “we have a duty to continue to try to find a peace”.

She added: “There will need to be compromises. And we will not need to not necessarily dismiss out of hand some ideas which may seem eccentric, possibly, such as Viceroy Tony Blair. 

“Who knows? I don’t actually care. What I care about is finding a way through this.” 

Chris Doyle, the director of Caabu, criticised the plan and said it should be “kicked into the long grass.”

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Thornberry also questioned the government’s continued sale of parts for F-35 fighter jets, which are directly used in Gaza.

The government has argued that including them in an arms embargo would disrupt the global supply chain of F-35 parts.

Thornberry, whose FAC scrutinises the government's foreign policy, questioned this logic and said: “Why not just put them [F-35 components] in a box and say they’re not for use by Israel?”

She noted that Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government imposed a full arms ban on Israel. “We need to continue looking at that.”

Thornberry further argued that the “only way to have any influence on Netanyahu” is to “go through President Trump”.

“We need to use and expend some of our capital with President Trump,” she said.

Daniel Levy, a fellow panellist and former adviser to the Israeli government, hit back, asking: “On Ukraine, do we try to influence Trump and in the meantime do nothing else consequential?”

The future of Israel

The Labour MP also questioned the practicalities of Israel's path towards the annexation of Palestinian land and the consequences of that policy on Palestinians.

Thornberry said that “what I always say to Israeli politicians” is “how do you see Israel in five years’ time?”

She said she asks Israeli politicians how there could be a Jewish democratic state if there is only one state, since it would have “an awful lot of Palestinians… if they’re gonna have a vote it’s not gonna be largely Jewish, so how does that work?”

'The spectrum of the politics [in Israel] basically lies between genocide and apartheid. That’s your choice'

- Daniel Levy

Thornberry continued: “What are you going to do with the Palestinians? That’s what I ask Israeli politicians and I don’t get an answer.”

Levy disagreed with Thornberry’s analysis, saying that “there is a plan”, and Israel is “enacting it right now.

“The spectrum of the politics [in Israel] basically lies between genocide and apartheid. That’s your choice. 

“When you’re asking Israeli politicians ‘what’s your plan’,” he told Thornberry, “what they’re really hearing is, ‘we’re not going to do anything.’”

Questions at this stage, Levy continued, should be “directed at the interlocutors in the countries that claim to be Israeli allies.

“What are you going to do about their plans?”