Emily Thornberry has urged Keir Starmer to risk angering Donald Trump over Gaza when he meets the US president on Monday.
The Labour chair of the influential foreign affairs select committee has said it is “the moment” for the prime minister to take a “high risk” move to “put together peace proposals” with allies, including France.
It comes as it was announced Sir Keir will recall his cabinet from their summer break for an emergency meeting on the Gaza crisis this week after over 120 cross-party MPs signed an open letter urging him to recognise a Palestinian state immediately.
She told the Guardian: “Netanyahu only listens to Trump, and even then only sometimes. But somebody has to talk to the Israelis and nothing is going to move in this awful situation without him.
“Trump needs to hear that he has the strength of ten presidents, that only he can get a ceasefire. But it’s high risk for Keir as it could anger him and it’s not even clear whether it would work. But he has to try, this is the moment it has to be done.
“Trump also needs to hear that allies, including the UK, French and Saudis, are prepared to work together to put together peace proposals but they will only work if they result in two states: Israel and Palestine.”
Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, a former Tory cabinet minister, added: “Every moment of inaction is a deliberate choice. These two leaders hold the power to end the starvation and killings in Gaza, to halt the violence in the West Bank, and to bring the hostages home with a permanent ceasefire.
“If they fail to act, history will not only remember the atrocities, it will remember that they had the means to stop them and chose not to.”