Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has been at center stage in the controversy after allegedly holding a secret meeting with Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan, who was accused in the past of calling for the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. Golan is also set to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the UK Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool.

It was last year when some firestorm was created by Yair Golan, a former major general in the Israeli military and leader of The Democrats – a grouping of Israel’s Labour Party and Meretz – when the Gaza war began. At the time, Golan advocated for cutting all electricity and supplies to Gaza, saying, “We have to tell them: listen, till the hostages are freed for all we care, you’ll die from hunger. It’s legitimate.” International law, however, designates collective punishment as a war crime. This is precisely what Israel is doing, enacted by such advocates.

However, as retweeted from X, a Sunday meeting between Golan and Lammy reveals that the conditions upon which the UK will lift a ban on the export of defense arms to Israel were reportedly discussed with Lammy. The UK suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses in September. Against this backdrop, Golan’s meeting with Lammy appears to fit the same mode of strained relations, more so after the reported refusal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet British Minister Lammy during a visit to Israel in August. The refusal follows the withdrawal of British objections by the Labour Party over International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Since then, the UK’s arms restrictions have also drawn a rebuke from Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer had his presentation at the Labour Party Conference interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protester who shouted about the plight of children in Gaza. To laugh off the situation, Starmer joked, “This guy’s got a pass from the 2019 conference,” referring to the last Labour conference under former party leader Jeremy Corbyn. His subsequent endorsement of the two-state solution, calling for “restraint and de-escalation” between Lebanon and Israel and advocating for a safe Israel in a recognized Palestinian state, has earned him kudos.

Starmer courted controversy as initially, he seemed to step out to endorse Israel’s actions in Gaza before reversing his statement and requesting a humanitarian ceasefire. His stance on Israel-Palestine has remained one of the country’s most talked-about issues during the conference.

In addition to meeting with Lammy, Golan attended the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) parliamentary group’s event. LFI is among the parliamentary groups of which senior UK politicians are members. The LFI welcomed Golan’s visit and described his party as their “Israeli sister party.” Golan was photographed alongside Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, who has voted against the state of Palestine being created and has called for buildings to be destroyed in Gaza.

Further adding to the furor was a threatening warning from backbench Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy that the UK government could be held criminally liable for continuing weapons supplies to Israel amid this ongoing conflict.